A future that never happened
by FemaleSpock
Summary: AU. What might have happened if Aarch had died when he had the smog poisoning. Would the Snow Kids ever find each other to form a team? Would they even be the same people that they were in the series?
1. Chapter 1

A future that never happened

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik football, and I make no money from this fic.**

**It's been a while since I wrote a fanfiction, so forgive me if I'm a little rusty. I may not be able to update this as often as I usually would, as I'm really busy with school, but I'll try my best.**

**Summary: AU, what if Aarch had died on the pitch the day that the shadows were playing the Cyclops team? This fic basically looks at what would have happened to the snow kids, Artegor and other characters, if Aarch had never formed the team. **

_16 years ago….._

_Aarch ran, he had been playing hard for the entire match, and he wasn't even the slightest bit out of breath. He wasn't even tired, he felt like he could go on playing forever. He took a breath, the smog filled his lungs. He could feel the smog flowing through his veins; it was being carried to every part of him. _

_And it felt good. So powerful and enriching, Even now he could feel the glorious rage seeping through his very being. He was the smog. It took him a moment to realise that he had fallen. He didn't even feel it, he was on the ground, but he could barely see with the black smog clogging the air._

"_Is that coming from me?" the vague thought formed, he felt so numb, usually the smog made him feel so alive._

_He saw Artegor's face all of a sudden, he tried to explain "Artegor, I can't go on; the smog is making me sick."_

_Artegor's reply sounded so odd to Aarch's smog filled ears, so surreal, he was muttering something about being the greatest players ever, it didn't really sink in._

_Suddenly the smog seemed to leave him, it felt like it had all leaked out, he was free of it._

"_Detox" he said laughing weakly. _

_He tried to lift himself off the ground and was succeeding, until all of a sudden he collapsed. The smog flared up, it seemed to go up to the roof and fill the entire stadium._

_A minute later it was gone and so was Aarch, the doctors tried to save him, to resuscitate him, but it was too late and he was already dead. After that Artegor was immediately rushed to the hospital and put under testing and treatment for smog poisoning. Worlds watched on in horror. The league responded by placing a ban on teams recruiting non-natives to their teams. A huge funeral was held for Aarch back on Akillian but eventually people started to forget and move on with their lives. _

**So that's chapter one done, please review- I think the description in this chapter came off a little cheesy- so if you have any tips on how to improve, I will be very grateful. I'll try get the next chapter up as soon as I can. **


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

**I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction. **

_**The present day, 16 years after Aarch's death.**_

"Yo, Micro-ice, you coming for a drink?" Keith, one of Micro-ice's work buddies, called after him.

"No thanks, I've got plans!" he said smiling to himself, little did they know he was going for a meal with the guy that most people called 'Mad D'jok'. Of course he had known D'jok since he was a kid, so he knew that he wasn't really mad, but most people didn't know that.

Five minutes later and Micro-ice was sitting down at 'Akillian's best chippy' with D'jok and they had ordered there food.

"So," said D'jok "how's work?"

Micro-ice rolled his eyes "you know, it's work, but then you don't have a job so I guess you don't know."

D'jok winced, this topic seemed to come up way too often between Micro-ice and him.

"You know that I'm waiting for my chance. I wouldn't want to get tied down to a job when my destiny awaits me."

"Yeah, your great destiny, right?" Micro-ice rolled his eyes for the second time in two minutes.

"I know I'm right about this, I was born to be a great footballer, if you can accept just being a miner then fine. But I was meant for something greater and I'm not going to back down" he spoke with complete certainty.

And that was why people thought he was a nutter, he talked about football, he seriously entertained the idea of becoming a footballer. Everyone on Akillian knew that football was cursed, first there was the explosion which caused an ice-age, and the breath disappeared- that was a sure sign that people from Akillian were not supposed to be footballers. If that wasn't enough, just look at the three greatest Akillian footballers: Norata-lost his leg and couldn't play even if he wanted to, Aarch-dead whilst playing football and lat but not least Artegor-taken away for treatment of his smog poisoning and then never seen or heard from again. So any talk of football was a strict taboo, a taboo that D'jok broke on a regular occasion, he was often seen performing ball tricks in the street to try and gain some extra cash.

"So, how's your mother?" D'jok asked in an attempt to try and steer the conversation away from awkward topics. And it worked for the rest of the evening they talked naturally just like old times.

Afterwards he was walking past a flower shop and he suddenly had a jolt of memory

"What date is it?" he thought worriedly. He checked his watch, it was as he feared, mother's day was tomorrow. He peered into the shop, it looked like it was still open, hopefully he could buy some flowers for her.

So he pushed open the door and strode in looking frantically at all the flowers, Micro-ice didn't know much about flowers, so it was a little overwhelming.

"Shop's closing in five minutes" a monotone voice said from behind him. Micro-ice spun around to look and to his surprise saw a guy of about his age wearing an expression of boredom on his face.

"Yeah, so what would you recommend I buy then?" he said grinning.

"Fine, I would recommend that you buy from that selection over there, they're the freshest work" he pointed to a stand of flowers.

"Thanks" Micro-ice winked at him and walked over to the flower stand. After a few minutes looking he found a bunch in his mother's favourite colour of dark orange.

"I'll take these please" he said grinning again.

"That'll be 20 credits please" the flower guy said looking very world-weary.

Micro-ice handed over the money, unfortunately for him, mining didn't pay very well, so the measly 20 credits represented a large portion of his salary.

"Hey..umm," he looked over at the guy's name badge "Rocket, you know it wouldn't kill you to smile."

"I don't think that's any of your business" Rocket said coldly.

"I know, but I just think I'd share the Micro-ice wisdom with you, so see ya!" he said walking out with a wave.

Rocket actually did find himself smiling a bit, after Micro-ice had left, something about Micro-ice's zest for life was catching.

"Bet he's not stuck in a boring job like me though" Rocket muttered to himself.

**That wasn't too long to wait for a chapter was it? Unfortunately nothing really happened in this chapter, I'm not sure why, but I can never write interesting second chapters. And I know that the way that Rocket and Micro-ice met was a little contrived. Please review!**


	3. Chapter 3

A future that never happened chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik football or make any money from this fanfiction.**

**Sorry this chapter has taken so long, stupid GCSEs and Coursework are to blame.**

Micro-ice was pleased with his selection of flowers, he was sure that his mother would like them, as usual luck played out for Micro-ice and he had managed to find a present. He was walking down the street in a good mood, not really looking where he was going, so it was no surprise when he walked into someone.

"Oh! Sorry" he said casually, then he looked up and saw an extremely pleased Sinedd peering down at him.

"Well if it isn't Micro-ice. Who are the flowers for? No, wait I know, your boyfriend D'jok!" he said grinning with a self assuredness.

Micro-ice was not impressed by Sinedd's attempts at insults, so he answered the question with the one thing that might shut Sinedd up: the truth.

"They're for my mother, for mother's day" had Micro-ice been feeling particularly mean, he could have added 'but you don't have a mother do you?' but he wasn't, so he didn't.

Sinedd's face clouded over "Whatever, I don't have time for loser mummy's boys, so I'll catch you later." And with that he was gone.

**Meanwhile on Obia moon….**

"Tia, I just don't see why you would do something like this, your father and I are extremely disappointed in you" Tia's mother said angrily.

"It's my hair. Why can't I do what I like with it?" Tia said gesturing to her newly dyed blue hair.

"As daughter our daughter you'll do as we say, you have an interview with one of the most prestigious universities in the galaxy, they won't want you if you have blue hair" Tia's father's face was stern.

Tia rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion "I don't want to go there anyway, especially not to do politics, why can't I learn to become a film director?"

"Because it is a useless waste of a life! Politics will prepare you for a real job, do you think that I got where I did by wasting my life with a video camera?"

"No, no person could be as cruel as you are if they really observed human feelings instead of just thinking about your status all the time!" Tia's anger just seem to burst out of her, she hated her parents when they tried to control her (which was pretty much all the time).

"Tia! That is no way to talk to your father! You are dismissed to your room and this subject is closed!" her mother said with the tone of someone who is used to being obeyed.

"I was going anyway" Tia muttered as she stomped back to her room.

She sat on her bed crying for about 10 minutes before she decided this wasn't helping. Today was just the final straw, she'd know her parents were like this for a long time, and now she'd do what she'd been planning for a while. She had to run away. She'd thought through the concept many times but she still didn't have a lot of questions for the hard questions. Like: 'Where would she live?' and 'how would she afford basic necessities like food?' She guessed she would have to get a job somehow and perhaps she could get a scholarship to film school somehow.

"Perhaps my skill could come in handy for something" Tia suddenly thought, remembering her skill with a football and that mysterious blue energy she could call up, perhaps she could perform football tricks for money. Anyway, Tia felt she had thought about it enough, she already had a bag packed in case, so she grabbed it and all the money she had and jumped out the window.

She looked around, hoping that she wasn't being caught by the various surveillance cameras, and then rushed into her ship and started up the engine. She took off and left without even looking back.

"Akillian here I come!"

**Okay, that's all for this chapter, sorry it's short but I figured that people would want any chapter after such a long time, that is if there is anyone still reading…. If there is please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

A future that never happened chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction (or any other fanfictions).**

**So this chapter has come after not too long, I think I've caught the fanfiction writing bug again....**

An hour and a half later, Tia was sitting a cheap and none to clean motel room. She had some serious maths to do: the motel room cost 15 credits per night- she had grabbed her saved up stash of money before she left which came to a total of 215 credits, so she could stay here for 2 weeks and that was if she didn't eat, drink or do anything else that required money.

"Basically I need a job right away" she said determinedly to herself. But it would have to wait, she was exhausted plus it was getting late no places that could possibly employ her would be open this late.

"Oh well, I'll look in the morning" she thought as she drifted into a sleep.

In her dreams she was going job hunting, she looked in place after place but she kept getting rejected. That is until she went to a nice family restaurant and the couple who ran it decided to employ her as a waitress, as soon as she accepted the job the couple tore off their masks and standing there were her parents. The restaurant then morphed into their family home.

"See, I told you she'd just end back here" her father said to her mother smugly.

Then Tia woke up. It was only around seven in the morning but the curtains of her motel room were so flimsy they didn't really block any of the light.

"I hope my job hunting doesn't go like that" she muttered as she dragged herself out of bed and into the shower.

30 minutes and a shower with no hot water later and Tia was ready to go. She eat one of the energy bars she had brought with her for 'breakfast'. She then locked up her room (although the lock looked so flimsy that there wasn't much point in bothering) and paid the man at the desk for the next two days stay. She considered complaining about the cold water shower but then realised that was exactly what a spoilt little rich girl would do and she never wanted to be that person.

As many places weren't open yet, Tia decided to walk around and get to know the place. She noted down any places that had adverts to hire. After a while she noted that the only places hiring were: 'Akillian's Best bakery' (she'd only seen one bakery so far, so there didn't seem to be much competition for the title), a place simply entitled 'Florists' and 'Silver snow'- a trendy boutique. She decided to go for an interview with 'Silver snow', she wasn't interested in fashion by any stretch of the imagination but it was the one which paid the most.

The interview didn't go so well. The woman interviewing her was coifed, stylish and she knew it. The woman looked at Tia as if she were some odd and repulsive type of creature. She kept glancing at Tia's ensemble as if to reassure herself that anything could really be that unfashionable. But it was when she asked Tia "How do you defend the fact that you have blue hair stylistically?" that Tia knew she wasn't going to get the job.

"Oh well, I wouldn't have liked it there anyway, I can always apply for the other two jobs" she was optimistic. Unfortunately her optimism was misplaced. She was rejected from 'Akillian's best bakery', they had been all ready to accept her for the job until the fatal question of her identity came up. She knew she couldn't show them her ID or she'd risk her parents finding her. So she went as a last shot to the florists. It was part time and didn't pay so well but never the less a job was a job.

The man who interviewed her looked oddly familiar, Tia had this weird feeling- not that she had met him, just that she had seen his face somewhere. Unfortunately, she didn't qualify for this job either, he let her down in the nicest way possible after all it wasn't surprising that he wouldn't want someone with no references whatsoever- not even a school report.

"Who was that?" Rocket asked catching a glimpse of Tia leaving the shop looking pretty downhearted.

"She wanted the part-time job, but she wasn't qualified" Norata answered absently.

For some reason this answer wasn't enough for Rocket, he had an odd impulse that he should follow this mysterious blue-haired girl, but she was out of sight and he had work to do.

Tia was disappointed. She tried not to be, she knew it wouldn't help her situation, she knew now she had been unrealistic. "Time for plan B" thought tiredly- traipsing around looking for a job had made her tired- and hungry. She returned to the motel and considered her situation. She didn't have many credits and now she knew she wouldn't get a job or any stable income. So for lunch she ate another energy bar- it didn't really fill her up. She was beginning to think all this was a bad idea. But she couldn't give up, not until she was starving on the streets would she go crawling back to her parents.

So after a quick nap she grabbed her football and headed out to try and make some money.

D'jok was not having a good day, he was still irritated at Micro-ice's contemptuous attitude yesterday at dinner, and Maia had given him another one of her 'perhaps it would be better if you just gave up on football' talks. He was so sick of people thinking that he had no future, that he wasn't worth anything because he didn't make any money, so he had decided to work of his frustration and earn credits by performing some football tricks in his usual spot. It didn't pay well, all the adults were fearful and disapproving of football so most his donations came from kids and teenagers- not exactly the age group with a lot of money to spare.

D'jok felt his day getting worse as he got to his spot and someone was already there. On closer inspection it was a girl with blue hair and a delicate build. But that wasn't what stood out to D'jok, it was her talent, she was very good.

"Almost better than me" he thought bitterly. His first reaction was jealousy but then he got a better idea. He waited around for her to finish up, which she did after around half an hour. She was new at this D'jok could tell, he would usually perform for hours on end in order to gain the maximum number of credits.

"Hey!" he said as she reached to pick up the hat with the credits that people had thrown in.

"Hello?" she asked in a confused manner as if she wasn't sure whether they had met before.

"I have a proposition for you" D'jok said trying to look friendly.

**What will the proposition be? Find out next chapter. Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

A future that never happened chapter 5

_Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik football and make no money from this fanfiction._

_Sorry I've left it this long without updating but after next Friday my GCSEs will be done and so there will be much more frequent updates._

"What sort of proposition?" Tia asked suspiciously, the guy didn't look particually odd or dangerous but you could never really tell.

"Those were some moves you got there, you know most people on Akillian wouldn't touch a football to save their life." D'jok said still not answering the question.

"Well I'm not most people," Tia said internally cringing when she realised how dumb that sounded "anyway, who are you? You haven't said what you want or even your name."

"My name is D'jok, you haven't heard of me yet but one day you will. I have an incredible destiny; one day I will be the galaxy's greatest football player!"

She stared at D'jok in disbelief at his arrogant attitude.

"Anyway," he continued oblivious to Tia's annoyance "you can't just make it by being a great player you need a team. And the problem is that Akillian doesn't have one. Hasn't had one since the ice-age. And it's not like we could play for another team; it's against the law. So we need to start a team."

"We? Wait a second, who said anything about we?" Tia was getting irritated with all of this.

"Well you have skills; surely you want to play football. Besides I am guessing you don't have a job and let me tell you performing tricks on the street does not get you many credits. Just look in your hat if you don't believe me."

Tia looked inside and found a grand total of 15 credits. It wasn't going to be enough. Dismayed she looked at D'jok with slightly more friendliness "So, even if I did join you, that would hardly be a team. And even if we did get enough people we would have to get recognition from the league. Not to mention the resistance we would get here."

"We would have to start a revolution; the football revolution!"

Tia raised an eyebrow.

Off her look D'jok smiled sheepishly and said "Okay so not the greatest name ever, but we can think of a better one later."

"Okay I'm in. So now what do we do?"

Meanwhile elsewhere on Akillian

Ahito woke to the sound of furious typing. It was 11oclock at night and yet again Thran was working way into the night on his laptop. This was a sharp contrast to the lifestyle Ahito was living; it was hard to believe that they were really twin brothers. Whilst Thran was studying hard to become a doctor, Ahito was sleeping practically all day and night and not working towards anything. Ahito knew it wasn't his fault that he had some sort of disease that the doctors couldn't work out but he still felt guilty. Although Thran was great at medicine, Ahito knew that he was really more interested in physics and engineering, he was was only trying to become a doctor for his sake. Not only that but Thran spent most of his free time on message boards online asking about constant drowsiness, trying to find anything that could possible help Ahito.

"I am wasting my life and my brother's" Ahito thought miserably. He was going to go back to sleep when he was jolted by the alarmingly loud door bell.

He dragged himself off the sofa and went to answer the door. He didn't have a clue who would come over this late.

He opened the door to find D'jok and a girl he didn't know standing there.

"D'jok!" he said hugging him. He was genuinely pleased to see D'jok; they hadn't had much contact ever since they left school.

"Ahito! So good to see you! Sorry for calling so late but I figured well...you're always asleep so it's never really a good time to come round if you see what I mean."

"Don't worry about it," he swivelled his gaze to Tia "and this is?"

"Oh this is Tia and we have something we want to talk about with you and Thran" D'jok said smiling.

"Oh. My. God," thought Ahito "he's going to tell us that he's getting married to that girl!"

He led them into the living room whilst calling for Thran to come and join them.

Thran dragged himself from his laptop to join Ahito in the living room. He was shocked to see D'jok and some girl he had never seen sitting on the sofa with Ahito. He rubbed his eyes; half out of disbelief and half because his eyes were strained from hours of computer usage.

"D'jok?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's me. Hi. Oh and this is Tia" he said gesturing to the girl. Thran took a seat next to Ahito and waited for some explanation.

"Okay so, we'll cut to the chase, Tia and I are forming a football team" D'jok said direct as usual.

"A football team? Are you off your rocker? Don't answer that." Thran asked irritably, he had work to return to and D'jok was pestering him with more of that football nonsense. He's always thought that D'jok would grow out of his 'destiny' phase but it seemed like he hadn't.

"Well we have talent. You know you two used enjoy playing. Come join the team; join the revolution!" D'jok said enthusiatically.

"I'm sorry D'jok but I'm going to be a doctor and actually help people intead of chasing some half baked idea" Thran said his voice stony.

"But is being a doctor really what you want? When I looked at my life I realised I wanted to do this despite the fact I had previously had other plans" Tia said softly, speaking for the first time since she had been there.

"I will be a doctor. Now if you will excuse me; I have work to do" Thran said leaving the room. Ahito wanted to say something but he promptly fell asleep; he was exhausted. In his dreams he accepted D'jok's offer; it was something worthwhile to do after all.

"Bye Thran, bye Ahito" D'jok said leaving the house with Tia, feeling utterly rejected.

"I thought they were friends of yours" Tia said fairly embarrassed at the scene that had occured at the twins' house.

"They were, we were like best friends, we all used to hang out: me, Ahito, Thran and Micro-ice. We were closer than close. I don't know what was wrong with Thran, stress maybe?"

"Or alternitavely it could be that he's got smarter and realised he just doesn't like you" a smug voice came from behind them.

D'jok's heart sunk, he knew exactly who was behind him without having to turn around, and he wasn't in any mood to deal with him.

Reluctantly he spun around and faced his tormenter. Of course it was Sinedd standing there with an irritating smile that made D'jok want to smack him hard in the face. He wanted to get this over with fast, unfortunatley Sinedd was not one of those people you could ignore and then he would go away, Sinedd was like a bad smell that lingered until you dealt with it.

"Sinedd," he said putting on his best sarcastic 'friendly' voice "Good to see that you are now stalking me and listening on my conversations!"

"I couldn't help but overhear and I wasn't stalking you. Your unhappiness just called me like a beacon; you know I would never pass up an opportunity to make you even more miserable!" he smirked.

"Yes well you've had your fun, now get lost, I'm busy!" D'jok was hoping that Sinedd would just say his usual goodbye consisting of vows of a 'round 2' or 'round 346', they'd had so many arguments that they couldn't really be kept track of. He started to walk off (Tia walking alongside him) hoping that Sinedd wouldn't follow.

No such luck.

"Come on D'jok, don't walk away, we were having such a nice conversation." Sinedd tagged along with them.

"No we weren't." D'jok said bluntly.

"Come now D'jok where are your manners?" Sinedd's tone dripped with sarcasm.

"Like you know anything about manners. I mean you haven't even acknowleged the fact that I'm with someone else. Her name's Tia, say hello to Tia, Sinedd." D'jok countered mimicking the tone of a patroynising school teacher trying to coax a shy child out of their shell.

Sinedd's eyes flicked to Tia for a second before deciding that she was uninteresting and so focused his glare back on D'jok.

Tia was getting angry now. She was tired and she wanted to go home (well back the the hotel anyway). This whole evening had been a disaster, she was enthusiastic about forming a team, but the start of their plans had not gone well. And now some rude guy was arguing with D'jok for what looked like the sake of arguing and completley ignoring her.

"Listen up, Sinedd or whatever your name is, you may not have anything better to do in the middle of the night than arguing for no good reason but some people actually just want to get back and go to bed!" Tia's anger seemed to burst over, when this happened all her shyness just seemed to disapear.

"Something better to do than wind up D'jok? Hmmmm I can't think of anything...except maybe annoying Micro-ice and D'jok but he's not here so I'll settle for irritating you too."

"I think it says a lot about your life that you have nothing better to do than irritate people." Tia retorted.

"Oh yeah, well what does it say about you that you have no-one better to hand around with than D'jok. Say wait a minute; the two of you never really explained what you are doing together. Don't say she's your girlfriend, D'jok!" he said focusing his gaze back on D'jok.

D'jok blushed a little then stood up straight to give one of his infamous destiny speeches.

"If you must know, I'm starting a football team, Tia's on the team and we are looking for new recruits. I will finally be able to fufill my great destiny as the star of the galaxy. I have a great destiny; an extrodinary destiny!"

"I've heard the speech before D'jok; didn't stop me beating you everyday in football!"

"You did not, I always beat you!" D'jok protested indignantly.

(In fact neither of them was correct; both of them won or lost in practically even measures.)

"A team eh? Well there's no team on this galaxy which would be worth anything without me on it" Sinedd boasted matching D'jok for cockiness.

"Fine then; so why don't you try out for our team then!" Tia interjected, she didn't like Sinedd but they didn't really have many players for their 'team' and if he was a good as he said he was then they could definately use him.

"Like I'd join your loser team" "Tia, we don't want _him _on our team" D'jok and Sinedd protested at once.

"Actually," Sinedd said slyly "seeing as you don't want me then I guess I'll join."

Great okay, let's all meet tommorrow, after we've got some sleep" Tia said anxious to just get out of there and go to sleep. They arranged a meeting and then all went their separate ways.

The next day Tia and D'jok meet at the agreed point at ten. Of course Sinedd didn't show up until it was half past ten.

"Sinedd, where have you been?" D'jok asked angrily.

"Around." Sinedd's reply was short and clipped; he wasn't in the mood to get verbal jousting with D'jok.

"Fine; it's fine." Tia was not in the mood for another long arguement.

There was a brief almost awkward pause.

"So we are a team...well part of a team. So let's see you play." Tia said trying to sound optimistic.

Sinedd took the football from Tia's outstretched arms, juggled it a bit with his feet and then kicked it hard.

The ball flew through the air until it hit and knocked over a dustbin. Half the contents of the dustbin fell over into the street.

"You better pick that up; you can't litter!" D'jok sounded indignant, mostly because he wanted Sinedd to mess up and so have a reason not to include him on the team.

Sinedd shrugged and did nothing to clean it up.

"Okay Sinedd you're in!" Tia said trying to ignore the rubbish that had spilled onto the street.

"Tia, don't you think you should consult me on these things?" D'jok loudly whispered so that Sinedd could definatly hear.

"Well so far we have you and me on the team, we are in no position to pass up good players like him no matter how much you hate him." Tia said firmly, she suspected she would have to be the voice of reason in this 'team'.

"Guess I'm in" Sinedd smiled evilly at D'jok.

"However, there will be no more fighting with you two, teamwork is important" she added looking at them both strictly.

"Yes of course" D'jok said wondering when Tia became the unofficial team coach and the fact that he really didn't mind.

They had team practice (with the three of them it was kind of hard) before they stopped to disscus how they were going to continue building the team.

They decided that they needed a coach; someone with experience in Galactik football.....

_So that's all for now....who will they try to get as a coach? Oh who am I kidding there are __only like two options of who it could be so...have fun guessing! Also just as like a warning: I will be adding in some pairings at some point and they may not nessesarily be the same ones as in the 'real' Galactik football universe (after all what are AUs for if not to mess around with canon). Please review!_


	6. Chapter 6

A future that never happened chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Galactik football and I make no money from this.**

**The other players mentioned from the old team are OCs seeing as we don't know all of the players on the old Akillian team.**

Of course they had decided to go and find Norata. He was the only person that could really be for the team out of previous players for Akillian. After all Aarch was dead, Adium was now head of the GF league (they had wanted someone from Akillian because of their lack of a team, they figured it would make the league president more neutral), Gabby had gone on to become a high profile talkshow host, Liadan had gone into professional wrestling and Ciaran had died in a shuttle accident. Who knows what happened to Artegor. He just disappeared after Aarch died and no-one knew whether he was alive or dead. So then that left that left only Norata who wasn't dead, missing or in a high profile job, in fact he ran a florist and lived locally. That made him the perfect candidate.

On there way over there Tia was giving the 'team' a pep talk and was saying how she had interviewed for a job there. Sinedd wasn't really listening. In his mind he was trying to work out really why he was on this team. True the team could bring him glory, fame and most importantly money but there was no guarantee of it going anywhere. In fact there was a good chance that nothing would come of this 'football revolution'. Sinedd scowled at the thought that he might be wasting his time but realized that he had plenty of time to waste anyway. It wasn't like he was doing anything with his life. He consoled himself by reassuring himself he would quit if it was a dead end. But for now he was staying. They reached the florists and walked in.

Rocket was cutting flower stems, just as usual, same boring job. Cut the flowers then arrange them. Deliver flowers to clients. Then come back and cut more flowers. Repeat as many times as possible in a working day.

"There must be more than this" he thought, not for the first time. It wasn't that he didn't like flowers but he just wasn't passionate about them in the same way his father was.

"Get used to it, this is your life, this will always be your life" Rocket muttered to himself. His train of thought was broken when the sharp sound rang out notifying him that someone had entered the shop.

He looked up and saw three teens.

A friendly looking redhead, a scowling black-haired and….blue haired girl! Rocket found himself getting excited despite the fact he had never really even met this girl before.

"Uh, hi, do you want to buy some flowers?" he said trying not to sound awkward.

"Hi, actually we aren't here to buy flowers, we're here to see Norata. Is he here?" blue-haired girl said.

"He's um in the back. I'll go get him for you" Rocket said smiling at her.

Rocket went through the door to see his father meticulously measuring the amount of plant food to add.

"Dad, there are some people here to see you."

Norata didn't look up; he was still concentrating on his plant.

"Dad!" Rocket exclaimed.

"I heard you Rocket; I'll come and speak with them after I have finished this."

Rocket walked back into the main part of the shop and apologetically told the group "he'll be out in a minute."

They all just stood there in silence for a minute; an awkward silence in Rocket's opinion. So he decided to start a conversation.

"So, what are all of your names? I'm Rocket, by the way." he tried to maintain a casual yet friendly tone.

"I'm Tia" the blue-haired girl now known as Tia said.

"I'm D'jok" the red-haired guy said.

They looked at Sinedd who rolled his eyes and said "and I'm Sinedd, nice to meet you." Sinedd extended his hand.

Rocket shook it unsurely, good manners weren't exactly what he expected from this guy, but maybe he had been wrong to judge.

After about ten minutes Norata finally left the back room.

"Good morning," Norata's tone was as formal as ever "what can I do for you?"

"Good morning sir," Tia said (it had been agreed that she should handle most of the talking- after all her parents were diplomats) "we wanted to speak to you about our team."

"Team? What sort of team?" Norata asked suspiciously.

"A football team."

"You come here and you dare to mention that accursed sport! The one that took my brother and my leg; not to mention somehow caused an ice-age! You have a dream; you want to be stars. Well here's some advice to you from someone who lived the nightmare; give up! The sport is cursed; you'll only get yourselves into trouble. That is all I have to say on the subject. I don't want to see any of you here again unless you want to buy flowers."

With that Norata walked out of the room.

Sinedd knew he should be annoyed that the old guy had refused to even speak to them. But he wasn't, truth be told he was even more interested in football not, trouble was Sinedd's specialty.

"Sorry about him but there's no talking to him about football. Trust me, I know." Rocket sounded apologetic and disappointed.

"You want to play don't you?" Sinedd said. This was just odd; he could practically feel Rocket's anger, frustration and his desire to play so badly. It was empathy. He was feeling some sort of empathy for another person, since when did this happen? Not to mention the fact he had shook Rocket's hand, his original intention was to squeeze Rocket's hand hard and hurt his fingers, but he actually shook it properly. Something had stopped him. This was all just beyond weird.

"Uh yes I do but he never really let me. I used to sneak out and play sometimes though" Rocket said snapping Sinedd out of his thoughts.

"You should play with us." Sinedd said insistently.

"Well I would like to, but my father he, wouldn't approve." Rocket said regretfully.

Sinedd was going to say "Screw Norata!" but he wasn't beaten to speaking by Tia.

"Please, we would really like you on our team." Tia said gently.

"I guess I will then." Rocket said blushing red.

Sinedd's jaw almost dropped (almost- he wasn't going to ruin his perfect mask of indifference) but seriously a few words from Tia and suddenly Rocket was on board. What was that all about?

After some discussion Rocket agreed to meet them after he had finished work.

So they did. Now that there was the four of them things were starting to come together, although there was a major problem, D'jok and Sinedd were both Strikers and Tia and Rocket were both midfielders. So basically so far they didn't have any defensive players. Where they were going to find those they really didn't know; this whole thing just seemed to be one coincidence after another. Of course D'jok didn't believe it was chance; it was destiny. Why destiny had made Sinedd join his team was beyond him.

But he was fine with Tia and Rocket; in particular he felt like he felt a connection with Tia.

After practice they had to have yet another team meeting to try and work out how to get more players.

"We really need to get some more players" D'jok said seriously opening the topic of conversation.

"True, we don't have anywhere near a whole team, perhaps we could put up some flyers advertising that we want players" Rocket helpfully suggested.

"We need players fast," Tia looked fretful "Soon I won't have enough credits to pay for the hotel. I'm going to need an income fast."

"You can come and stay at my place" D'jok made the offer before he realised what he was saying.

"Really? You wouldn't mind?" Tia asked surprised but hopeful.

"Of course not, we can't have you being homeless, now can we? You're a part of this team and team's look after each other" D'jok said firmly. He would be happy to be living with Tia.

"Okay then! Thanks so much!" Tia smiled happy that her monetary issues would be over.

"What about me?" Sinedd spoke for the first time in the meeting. His detached face had given the impression to the others that he hadn't really been listening.

"What about you?" D'jok asked, irritated that Sinedd had spoiled the heartwarming moment.

"Well I am already homeless. I'm on the team also- I guess that means you have to take me too" Sinedd smirked- this was a win-win situation for him- he would either end his homeless days and have the opportunity to irritate D'jok in his own home or he would show D'jok up as a hypocrite.

D'jok knew he couldn't just say he didn't want Sinedd in his house; he was part of their team now. So he took the easy option.

"I don't know if I'll have room for two extra people; any chance Sinedd could live with you, Rocket?" D'jok asked hastily.

"Some how I don't think so. You saw how my dad reacted to the whole football team thing; I don't know how I'd explain him coming to stay. Sorry." Rocket did look genuinely apologetic.

D'jok knew he had no choice; once again destiny had decided to lump Sinedd on D'jok.

"Fine Sinedd, you can stay, but you'll have to sleep on the floor!"

"Fine with me," Sinedd hadn't slept in a bed since he was thrown out of the orphanage.

"I guess we should get Tia and Sinedd moved in and discuss the team in the morning" D'jok said suddenly feeling drained of energy.

So they said there goodbyes to Rocket and went over to Tia's motel to get her stuff. Sinedd didn't have anything to bring that he wasn't wearing or didn't have in his pockets. D'jok wasn't entirely sure how his mother would react to the fact that he had brought home Tia and Sinedd but he wasn't too optimistic about it.

Well it wasn't as if he had any choice. So with Sinedd and Tia following him he opened the door to his house……

**Find out next chapter what will happen and who else will join the team! By the way, does anyone want Mark to be in the team, because I don't really like him and so I'll only include him if someone specifically wants him in it.**


	7. Chapter 7

A future that never happened chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik football or make any money from this fanfiction. **

"I am home, Maya!" D'jok called loudly opening the door. He gestured to Sinedd and Tia who followed in afterwards.

Maya stepped out of a room and noted Sinedd and Tia without surprise.

"Um, well, we're on this football team and...." D'jok started

"They are going to live here with us." Maya finished.

"Um, yeah, so you don't mind do you?" D'jok asked nervously.

"I just wish you would have given me advanced warning," she said wearily.

"You're psychic; you probably knew that they were coming before I did!" D'jok protested.

Maya didn't say anything further than "Don't be cheeky" as what D'jok was saying was actually true.

So Tia was put into the spare room and Sinedd was given a mattress on the floor.

Tia unpacked her small bag into the smallish but immaculate spare room. The room was infinitely better than the motel room plus it was free! She felt a little bit guilty about being a burden on D'jok and his mother, but she figured it was only temporary; she'd eventually get money when their team got officially recognised and started playing. She tried to ignore the little voice in the back of her head that said "If. If you become recognised and play matches", it didn't help anyone to be negative. She eased her doubts by reassuring herself that a fortune teller's son would know a lot about destiny. She left her doubts behind when Maya called them for dinner.

Sinedd thought he had died and gone to heaven- not that he believed in a heaven- and even if he had believed he had done all he could to ensure he wouldn't get a place. Maya's food was delicious, first decent meal he'd had since he could remember, the orphanage had always served horrible mush and he'd had to steal what food he could to stay alive. But Maya's food was a whole new experience. He knew he was going to enjoy living here. He was resisting the urge to smirk at D'jok's none to subtle glares; he didn't want to provoke him too much and get kicked out. He wasn't about to mess this up.

His mattress on the floor that D'jok had tried to use to deter him was comfortable, really comfortable actually. "I knew there was a reason I joined this team" he muttered to himself. Luckily everyone else was also in bed so no one heard him talking to himself like a crazy person. "Talking of crazy," he thought to himself "what was with me today with Rocket? It's weird, on this team I hate D'jok and I couldn't care less about Tia but Rocket…he's sort of…respectable. He's a loser. He can't even tell his Dad he wants to play football; he works in a _flower shop._ I have no reason to respect him but I do…." Sinedd couldn't figure it out and promptly decided that he didn't have to; it was probably nothing. Sinedd decided that he would just roll over and get to sleep.

And he did until he was woken up by the shrill sound of the doorbell at a horribly early hour. Sinedd ignored it, it wasn't his house, D'jok could go get the door. The door bell sounded several other times; it seemed like the person on the other side was quite desperate. D'jok didn't seem to be getting up and the sound was quite irritating so Sinedd reluctantly hauled himself up to answer it.

He opened the door and found Micro-ice standing there.

"Sinedd!" Micro-ice was shocked to see Sinedd.

"Micro-ice what are you doing here it's like 5 in the morning!" he yelled.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Have you stolen D'jok's house or something?" Micro-ice was suspicious.

Sinedd remembered that Micro-ice didn't know about the team or his staying at D'jok's house. He smiled evilly; he could have some fun with this.

"Well Micro-ice didn't D'jok tell you?" he said in mock innocence.

"Tell me what?" Micro-ice looked hurt that D'jok would neglect to tell him something.

"Oh, nothing. If he didn't tell you then I probably shouldn't either."

"Tell me, Sinedd! I promise I won't tell him you told me!" Micro-ice wheedled.

"But that would be a betrayal of trust that D'jok has placed in me," Sinedd blinked innocently.

"Why would he trust you and not me? I am his best friend!"

"Of course you are…" Sinedd said in patronising tones.

Sinedd could have continued his teasing for a very long time but D'jok walked out of his room to see what all the noise was about.

"Micro-ice, what are you doing here?" he asked wearily.

"What is Sinedd doing here?" he asked obstinately.

"Why don't you come in and then we can both explain."

So Micro-ice walked in and they all sat in the living room.

"Seriously, Micro-ice, what possessed you to come round at this hour?" D'jok asked, rubbing his eyes.

"It was a really important reason…it was…really important" he said sheepishly.

"You don't remember do you?" unfortunately Micro-ice had pulled this sort of stunt before.

"Erm no, not exactly, but it was extremely important!" Micro-ice proclaimed.

"Yes, I'm sure it was" said D'jok who suspected it was probably nothing important to start with.

"Anyway, down to what's really important, what is _he _doing here?" he said gesturing to Sinedd (who smirked at his distress).

"Sinedd is here; well, because destiny said so!" D'jok tried to explain.

"You see Micro-ice, I live here now, isn't that a surprise?" Sinedd said smirking (Sinedd seemed to do an inordinate amount of smirking).

"He lives here? What? Don't tell me he's Maya's new boyfriend…" Micro-ice was trying to rationalise.

"Ewwwww, no, Micro-ice that's a gross idea!" D'jok said feeling grossed out by the idea of Maya and Sinedd together. Sinedd didn't seem like the idea either as he was pulling a face that implied he was about to throw up.

"Can I just get a straight answer please?" Micro-ice was waving his arms around frustrated.

"He's on my football team!" D'jok yelled.

"Oh right, you must be really hard up for players if you are taking the likes of him, what's wrong with you D'jok? Have you gone crazy?"

"Micro-ice, do you have to over react to everything? It's simple really: we don't have a lot of players for the team and as much as it pains me to say it Sinedd is a decent player."

"Hey! I'm more than 'decent'; I am the best player this losers' team has!" Sinedd objected vocally.

"Sinedd; don't go overboard!" D'jok flashed a look of irritation at Sinedd; he had been being nice and Sinedd had to start the arrogant act.

"See this is what happens when you allow people like him onto your team!" Micro-ice gestured triumphantly to Sinedd.

"If you're so concerned about who's on the team, why don't you join?" D'jok said hoping Micro-ice would take the bait.

"Fine maybe I will!" Micro-ice had fallen for it.

"Great; nice to have you on the team!" D'jok smiled triumphantly.

"Wait, what? I didn't mean…."

"Nope, you said it so now you have to join, there's no way out now!"

Micro-ice sighed and resigned himself to fate. "Fine but I'm going to continue mining during the day so practice will have to be after work."

They continued to discuss things (well it was mostly Micro-ice and D'jok doing the discussing and Sinedd adding the odd snarky comment) until Micro-ice had to go home to prepare for work. D'jok and Sinedd decided to stay up seeing as there would be no point going to sleep now.

About half an hour later Tia woke up, got dressed and walked out of he room surprised to find Sinedd and D'jok sitting on the sofa watching football like they had been up for hours (which they had).

"Um, hi guys, sorry if I slept in too long." She said apologetically.

"Oh don't worry, a friend of ours…well actually mine…he hates Sinedd, dropped by at 5 in the morning. Actually I'm surprised you didn't hear the doorbell." D'jok reassured Tia smiling widely.

"I'm quite a heavy sleeper; it's hard to wake me once I am asleep," she explained sleepily.

"That must be nice for you. Anyway; you'll meet the friend later, he's joined our team. I hope you don't mind that you weren't here when that was decided," D'jok remembered suddenly that they were supposed to make decisions as a team.

"No it's fine," Tia said yawning "he's your friend so I guess you'd know how good he is."

"Oh good and yeah he is definitely good enough for the team."

Sinedd muttered something that Tia didn't catch about D'jok's friend; but to be honest she didn't really want to hear it, she was getting used to the fact that sometimes Sinedd just had to make a comment whether or not it was useful to the conversation.

A few minutes later Maya came out of her room and made breakfast for all of them. After that there was a problem of time. They had to wait for Rocket and Micro-ice to finish work before they could practice properly. They had a bit of a kick about but they stopped after a while.

So they were all lying on the floor in D'jok's room (Sinedd had wanted to slope off to somewhere but they had insisted that he needed to stay and 'bond' with the team) and they were bored out of their minds.

"We should think of something productive to do," Tia said.

"Yeah…" D'jok said noncommittally.

No-one made a suggestion as to what they could do.

"Shall we just go out and let destiny decide?" D'jok asked.

Neither Tia nor Sinedd could think of anything better to do so they went with what D'jok said. Normally Sinedd would have argued but he couldn't really find the energy to speak.

They walked for a while; they couldn't see anyone playing football, or many people around at all.

When they came to a large group of people outside the football league offices protesting they realised that the protest must be what was keeping people off the streets.

What they didn't know was what people were protesting about.

They worked themselves into the crowd to where the majority of the crowd were rallying around a central figure who was standing on some sort of box.

He had a large sign saying: 'Smog kills; don't kill anyone else!' and he was shouting words with a similar message. Sinedd, D'jok and Tia just watched the protest which didn't go on for long until security guards came and insisted that everyone left. It took a while but eventually the crowd dispersed.

"Hey, come on guys, let's follow him!" D'jok said pointing after the man who had been leading the protest.

So they trailed after him.

"Hey! We saw the protest and we were wondering what it was about," D'jok said when they caught up with him.

The guy stopped to look at them.

"Sorry, it's not really our business but…" Tia said apologetically.

"No, it's fine, do you want to talk in the café?" the man said gesturing to the café across the road.

"Sure, thanks!" Tia said enthusiastically.

They went into the mostly abandoned café and sat at a table. The waiting staff saw them but didn't look like they were inclined to take their order. It didn't matter; they weren't here for the beverages.

Now that they could rest they had the full time to take into the appearance of the man (whose name they still hadn't got).

He was extremely pale, unhealthily pale, like he rarely saw the light of day. He had no hair but it appeared he had shaven his head rather than just gone bald. He was wearing thick sunglasses which would support the theory that he rarely went outdoors. He was thin; his all black clothes hung off his frame loosely and threatened to swamp him. He gave the impression of someone who had been whitewashed; someone who used to have some great energy and passion but had lost it and so became the ghost of a person.

"My cause is simple; the football league recently announced that they are going to do an overview of the law barring teams from allowing players from other worlds play on their teams. It's all down to them wanting to be politically correct and allow equal opportunities," he said slowly and completely seriously.

"Excuse me sir; might I ask your name?" Tia asked putting on the manners she hated using when her parents forced her to attend some diplomatic event.

"I'm Zuriel," he said offering Tia a bony hand to shake.

She shook it politely saying "I'm Tia and they are D'jok and Sinedd. Pardon me for asking, but why can't we allow foreign players onto teams?"

"You don't have to be so formal; I'm not a 'respectable' person. The reason we can't have players crossing teams is because of their fluxes. Foreign flux can be deadly; I know this for sure. The problem is there is little 'hard scientific evidence' to back this up and there has been increasing pressure from some of the planets to repeal the law. The Shadows in particular have been pressurising the council; it just shows how little shame they have. I fear that the council will have to cave and repeal the law."

"If there is no evidence then there's no point having a law! We should let the Shadows have their players," Sinedd said aggressively, he hadn't had much chance to take his aggression out on anyone with his whole being on a team, so now he was going to argue with a stranger on a subject he really didn't care about.

Zuriel smiled weakly "You remind me of someone I used to know. But Sinedd just because something isn't proved doesn't mean it's not true."

Sinedd snorted in reply.

"When you say it causes death, you are referring to Aarch's death, aren't you?" D'jok asked using his knowledge of football to try and impress.

Zuriel looked down for a minute, his face seemed to spasm lightly in pain before he answered quietly "that's correct, the smog was responsible for Aarch's death and now the Shadows want a repeat performance."

"That's dreadful," Tia said in quiet and respectful tones.

"Aarch died! One person. Aarch is not that important in the scheme of things," Sinedd interjected angrily, thinking of the fact his parents died in an interplanetary war that claimed thousands of casualties.

"Sinedd! Don't be so rude, besides we don't know it's not just one, what about Artegor? He seemed to disappear off the face of any of the planets. We have a chance to save lives while we still can," D'jok was getting passionate about Zuriel's cause.

"Aarch was important," Zuriel's voice got really quiet so they could barely here him speak "he was the most important person."

"Did you know him? Aarch I mean," Tia's voice was also soft.

"Did I know him?" Zuriel seemed to be speaking to himself. "Sometimes I used to think that I did…"

All three pairs of eyes were searching his face; who was this guy really?

He suddenly jerked up from this seat in an awkward motion.

"Thanks for the talk but I really have to be going now, goodbye," he said walking off with an odd stride.

The tension that had filled the air snapped.

"We better get back, the others will want to practice soon," D'jok said business like.

"Yeah," Tia said shortly.

Sinedd just nodded.

**Okay that's the end of this chapter, I'm not sure how well this chapter turned out though. Hopefully there will be a new chapter soon. Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

A future that never happened chapter 8

**Disclaimer:** **I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

They rushed back to D'jok's house and found that they still had a decent amount of time until Micro-ice and Rocket joined them. So they just watched TV's football highlights while they waited. During the advertising break the doorbell rang (loudly again). D'jok, Tia and Sinedd all looked at each other as if to say "No, _you_ get the door!" In the end D'jok opened the door seeing as it was his house.

It was Ahito. D'jok smiled, he felt that feeling of destiny again, he and Ahito would have some sort of conversation (the Sinedd thing would probably come up again) and then he would join the team. D'jok just knew it.

"Hi D'jok, I've been thinking about it and I would like to join your team!" Ahito said cutting to the chase.

"Okay sure, before we even get to it, Sinedd's on the team and he's living at my house. Any questions?"

"Sinedd, that's cool..." Ahito said sleepily, the he suddenly snaps up and goes "What?"

D'jok sighed, he'd just had this conversation with Micro-ice and he did not want to get into it again.

"Come in Ahito," he said wearily. Ahito did and sat on the sofa as far away from Sinedd as possible.

"I thought you hated him," Ahito said as if Sinedd weren't there.

"We have our disagreements but that doesn't mean we can't work together on a team," D'jok said trying to sound convincing.

"I know but it's Sinedd…" he trailed off lamely.

"Forget about Sinedd for now, so you want to join the team?"

"Yeah, I'm not really doing anything with my life; I think that joining a team could be good for me. Thran will be angry at first but I'm sure he'll come around…"

"Okay, come to practice with us, it's on in a minute when Micro-ice and Rocket get back."

Half an hour later and Rocket had joined them. Ten minutes after that Micro-ice also came along. And then it was time for practice.

They were practicing, both in mini-teams and passing, shooting etc. After some thought it was decided that Ahito's talents lay in goalkeeping and so Micro-ice was on left defence. All they needed was someone to play right defence. The practice was going well although Micro-ice would probably been better as a striker than at defence and Sinedd had a tendency to try and monopolise the ball.

They practiced for about 2 hours and they decided to go back to D'jok's house for a group meeting and where met by an angry looking Thran standing outside D'jok's door.

"I knew you had something to do with this," he looked at D'jok "Ahito goes missing for hours on end and it's your fault. Do you know how serious his condition has become? This isn't like high school; he's deteriorating and he doesn't need to be put in any unnecessary danger!"

"But-" D'jok started to say until he was interrupted by Ahito.

"Brother, look at me, do I look ill, I feel so much better. Sure I fell asleep sometimes but not as much. I think football might be good for me."

Thran looked slightly ashamed for a moment but then he furrowed his brow in worry.

"What if something happens while you're playing?"

"Why don't you join us? That way you could be there if something happens. You used to love playing football."

"But," Thran was weakening and Ahito could tell "what about my studies, I can't abandon them!"

"You can continue them, practice is only a few hours a day, it wouldn't stop you from being a doctor. In fact as exercise can help mental concentration it could significantly help you," Ahito smiled knowing that he'd won over Ahito.

Thran sighed deeply and said "Okay, I'll join."

So they had a team. D'jok smiled as he felt that feeling of destiny wash over him, stronger than it had been before.

"What'll we call this team anyway?" Thran asked suddenly.

"Good point we don't have a name, D'jok?" Tia said looking at D'jok who was their de facto captain.

"Well I think we should all think about it and then discuss ideas tomorrow. I'm tired; I think we should all just go to bed now."

So they all went their separate ways.

Rocket opened his front door quietly, his father would already be in bed by now and he didn't want to be asked any questions about where he had been. He wasn't exactly a brilliant liar. He crept in quietly and snuck into his room. He flopped onto the bed and was startled to find his father sitting there with a very solemn look on his face.

"Dad! What are you doing here?" he asked surprised.

"I was waiting for you to get back, where were you?" Rocket was surprised to find that his father's voice didn't sound angry; he actually seemed to be in a reasonable mood for once.

"I was out with some friends," Rocket said, reasoning with himself that it was at least partly true.

"Out with some friends doing what? Oh wait I know you were playing football!" Norata's voice turned angry showing Rocket that his earlier reasonableness was all put on.

"I…was" Rocket started before being cut off by his father.

"Don't even try to lie to me Rocket! I got a call from one of our most valued customers that you had been playing that accursed sport and I didn't want to believe it, but you weren't you? After all I've told you about the dangers you go behind my back and play with those delinquents. I can't trust you to be sensible or responsible!"

"I don't see what's so wrong about football," Rocket burst out "I know what happened to you, the planet and Uncle Aarch but that doesn't mean it's cursed. It was just a coincidence!"

"Rocket! You will stop this nonsense right now! I ban you from playing. It might seem harsh but I am only doing what is best for you. It might seem boring being a florist but football is damaging in ways you can't imagine."

"Dad! I understand your point of view but I am not a florist. Nothing bad is going to happen I tell you! I can't stop now; we're going to the league soon to try and get approval for our team."

"I am your father, you live under my roof, I feed and clothe you and so when I say you don't play football then you have to listen!"

"Well I can't give up football so I guess I have to leave," Rocket said shortly.

"Rocket you can't go!" Norata quickly objected.

"Looks like I have to," he said leaving the room in a hurry.

"Don't think you can come crawling back to me when your life goes nowhere at least not until you give the sport up!" Norata was getting angry.

Rocket didn't look back. He ran down the street in case his father was following (which he wasn't) and looked up the dark sky wondering where he was going to go. This was his first real act of rebellion (watching football in secret didn't really count) and he had no idea what to do. Rocket supposed he should go over to D'jok's, he had said that he didn't have much room, but Rocket had suspected that it was just something D'jok had said to try and get along. Rocket didn't exactly know why but the majority of the (nameless) team didn't seem to like Sinedd very much. But Rocket headed that way anyway; he didn't have anywhere else to go.

Rocket walked to D'jok's house and it took him a few minutes to work up the nerve to ring the doorbell, he didn't want to wake anyone up but he couldn't exactly freeze outdoors either.

For once Maya opened the door.

"Sorry ma'am for waking you, but ummm I'm Rocket, I'm on D'jok's team. My father kind of just kicked me out of the house so I was wondering whether I could possibly stay here" Rocket said as politely as possible.

"Of course, come in you poor thing, we can't have you freezing can we?" she said letting him in.

"Thank you," Rocket said very gratefully.

She turned the light on in a room to reveal Sinedd lying on a mattress looking bleary eyed.

"Sinedd, you're going to have a roommate. Rocket, I'll get you a mattress and some covers from the cupboard," she said leaving them together in the room.

"Sorry if I woke you up," Rocket said awkwardly.

"It's okay, I was awake anyway," Sinedd answered, sounding genuine. Rocket didn't exactly know why everyone seemed to hate Sinedd as he seemed like a pretty decent guy, despite the impression he gave off.

"So why are you here?" Sinedd asked.

"My Dad kicked me out because he found out about me playing football. He doesn't approve."

"Too bad," Sinedd couldn't think of anything else to say besides that, he didn't have parents to kick him out and when he had been kicked out of the orphanage it had been for far worse things than playing football.

Maya came in with the mattress and after setting it up the two of them went to sleep with no further conversation.

**Next chapter soon. I found this chapter hard to write, I think my muse has abandoned me so it may not be so good. But at least the whole team is formed (for now, Mei will come in later) I was getting so sick of introducing all the characters. Please review, reviews are so helpful when writing future chapters.**


	9. Chapter 9

A future that never happened chapter 9

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

Tia awoke and found that there were not one but two people sleeping on the floor of the living room. Tia was curious and thought the matter warranted further inspection, she grabbed her video camera to film her journey over to the mattresses on the floor. As she got closer she realised that the other guy was none other than Rocket from the team. She jumped back a little when he seemed to wake up as if he had some sort of sense she was there.

Rocket woke to find a video camera pointed at him and Tia standing there looking sheepish.

"Sorry, I just saw two people and so I came over to see who else was here. I didn't know you were staying here," she said nervously.

"Well I wasn't. Staying here I mean. I mean, I wasn't staying here until late last night. My Dad um, sort of kicked me out," mentally he kicked himself for sounding like an idiot.

"Oh no! How come?" Tia sounded worried.

Rocket felt a bit weird that his father kicking him out was actually giving him a proper conversation topic to talk to Tia about, "We had a fight; he said I couldn't play football anymore if I lived under his roof."

"Oh I'm so sorry!" she said trying for a sympathetic tone. Rocket was going to answer with "It's okay" or something equally awkward but he was interrupted by Sinedd sitting up suddenly like a zombie, giving Tia a massive fright.

"What is so important that it couldn't wait until nine o'clock?" Sinedd said grouchily to Rocket.

"Sorry, Tia didn't know that I was staying here, I was explaining it to her."

Sinedd seemed to accept this as a reasonable answer as he merely muttered "I don't think I'll ever get a decent night's sleep in this place, someone's always coming and going."

D'jok woke up to the smell of something nice cooking. He went into the kitchen to find Tia, Rocket and Sinedd making pancakes (well Sinedd wasn't making them; he was just sort of standing at the side helplessly).

"Good morning," D'jok said, rubbing his eyes, "What's going on?"

"Well I accidently woke Rocket and Sinedd up so we decided to make breakfast. It's the least we can do to thank you and Maya for allowing us to stay here," Tia said cheerfully flipping a pancake.

"Wait, Rocket is living here now?" D'jok hadn't noticed immediately when he had first entered the room that only Sinedd and Tia should have been there and that Rocket wasn't logically supposed to be there.

"Ummm yeah, hope that's okay, I got kicked out so Maya let me in," Rocket explained.

"Sure, it's fine," even though D'jok didn't know Rocket he seemed nice enough, besides he seemed to keep Sinedd in check.

Anyway, D'jok had more important things to think about, they had secured a meeting with Adium to try and get entered into the league. There were several things to worry about this. For one thing they might not get accepted, Adium was from Akillian after all, she was personally affected by the tragedies; she might believe in the curse as much as everyone else. That was enough to make anyone nervous but there was the added nervousness as one gets when meeting an idol; after she was a player on the great Akillian team.

"Not to mention what will happen if we get accepted, where will we go from there?" the thought leaked into D'jok's mind, in some ways it would be easier if they were rejected, after all they had no coach, no guide. D'jok felt disgusted with himself to allow himself to think so negatively, he had been waiting for this chance his whole life, it was his destiny. And he wasn't about to jinx it by thinking negatively.

As the only person who actually had a job now was Micro-ice (Rocket couldn't exactly go back to work for his father) they decided that they would go during the day and that Micro-ice would just have to take a morning off work (he wasn't exactly heartbroken about it).

So the entire team met up and all went together to the league office. On the way they discussed what they would say and who would say it. And then they had to wait. They were escorted into the building and out in a lounge until they were called through into Adium's office.

They all walked in, heads held high, trying to look confident. Adium was sitting at her desk looking very serious.

"I understand that it is your wish to register as Akillian's football team and be entered into the Galactik Football tournament representing Akillian," she said formally.

"That is correct," Tia said trying to maintain the same air of formality.

"I see," Adium sighed "You currently have no competition in this aspect; no-one has dared risk the 'curse'."

"Curses are but a superstition," D'jok rationalised, "The tragedies that have occurred in the past were all coincidences and not because of some supernatural cause."

"Getting down to the business, I can't legally deny you entry to the league, I have to be impartial. One point of concern, however, shouldn't your coach be here with you?"

"Coach?" D'jok asked "We don't exactly have one."

"No team may be granted entry into the league without a coach. You have the deadline of a week to find a coach and only then will I accept your application," Adium was almost certain that the team wouldn't be able to find a suitable coach in time, but she had to uphold league rules.

"Thank you for your time, we'll be back with a coach," D'jok said sounding fairly confident that they could find one.

However outside the room the calm mask fell from all of their faces.

"We are never going to find a coach in time," Micro-ice whinged.

"It'll be okay, we just have to think, come on there has to be someone, someone we haven't thought of. Think!" D'jok's efforts to reassure himself and the team were just serving to induce more panic.

"Who? We tried Norata and he wouldn't be our coach. Who else is there?" Tia asked despairingly.

More voices chattered until Rocket had had enough "Alright, everyone be quiet! Panicking is getting us nowhere. We'll go back to D'jok's house and quietly discuss the matter."

Everyone looked at Rocket in shock, he didn't usually talk that much, but everyone did as he said anyway and started to file out of the building.

They went to D'jok's and all sat on the floor in the living room (aka Sinedd's and Rocket's bedroom) to discuss options. After half an hour's worth of heated discussion the group was in two 'camps'. Camp one consisted of Micro-ice, D'jok and Ahito who thought that they should try again to try and convince Norata to be coach. Camp two consisted of Rocket (he knew his father well enough to know how stubborn he could be, besides he had kicked him out), Tia, Thran and by default Sinedd, they all thought that they should advertise and audition people to be their coach. After more discussion they agreed that 'Camp one' would have one opportunity to go and speak to Norata and persuade him AND that Norata would let Rocket back into the house and apologise to Rocket. If that didn't work (which Rocket insisted it wouldn't) they would go to Callie Mystic and get her to talk to them on TV and show all of Akillian their need for a coach.

As they only had a week; D'jok, Micro-ice and Ahito, went that afternoon to the flower shop to see Norata. They walked into the shop nervously although Norata didn't look up from what he was doing. He looked angry but slightly sad at the same time.

"Norata?" D'jok said to catch his attention.

Norata looked up, startled, "You! What do you want? I thought I told you not to come back here!"

"You did but we need to speak to you. Listen, you can't just throw Rocket out, he's your son! Come be our coach, the two of you could work together again."

"He's no son to me. He abandoned me, just like everybody else did. And it's your fault! You filled his head with ideas about being in the football league. Everyone knows that football leads you down the path of destruction," Norata said his voice cold.

"That's just silly superstition! You can't just disown someone for following their dreams!" Micro-ice burst out.

"Superstition! The fact that an ice-age suddenly started during a match, the loss of my leg, Aarch's death- these were all connected with that awful sport, you can't say it was a superstition, it was real. I was only trying to do what is best for Rocket but he didn't listen. Now get out of my shop before I call the police."

Micro-ice was going to say something more but Ahito and D'jok dragged him out of the shop. It was as Rocket had said; Norata was too stuck in his ways.

They went back to the rest of the group and told them the news. So Thran called and made an appointment with Callie Mystic for tomorrow and then all the people who didn't live at D'jok's went home.

Later, as he was lying in bed (well mattress on the floor), Rocket couldn't help but feel disappointed. He had known his father wouldn't have given in but still he felt disappointed that his father didn't want to make it up with him. He wished his father could understand him and just get over his hatred for football, after all Norata had been a young once and he obviously had had the same dreams of playing football. It just wasn't fair.

He must have muttered something out loud as Sinedd said "Yeah, it's too bad about your father."

"Thanks. I just wish he approved of me. What about your parent? What do they think of the fact you're a future footballer?"

Sinedd was quiet for a minute before reluctantly answering, "My parents are dead."

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't know!" Rocket said quickly, hoping that he hadn't upset Sinedd.

"It's okay," Sinedd said, putting on a neutral voice.

"My mother's dead too. She died in childbirth having me. How did your parents die?"

"Sorry about your mother. My parents died in a war; they were soldiers. They died when I was young."

"It must have been so hard for you. At least I have my Dad, had I mean, I used to have my Dad to bring me up."

"Living in an orphanage wasn't particularly pleasant. I got out of there as soon as I could," Sinedd neglected to mention he had been kicked out of the orphanage for bad behaviour.

"Well you're here now," Rocket tried to sound more cheerful "I guess when we become Akillian's official team we'll get somewhere really good to live."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"The meeting with Callie is quite early, so I guess we should get some sleep," Rocket said feeling like there wasn't much else he and Sinedd could talk about.

"Yeah, I guess so," Sinedd again, shutting his eyes.

"Goodnight," Rocket said.

Sinedd didn't reply.

**Next chapter soon. Please review!**


	10. Chapter 10

A future that never happened chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

Tia woke up; feeling slightly depressed. They still hadn't got a coach and despite their plans she suspected that they wouldn't get one. After all who would risk the 'curse'? She was also dismayed to find that upon inspection that her roots were beginning to show, giving her hair a very odd look. Whilst she hated to admit her parents were right about anything, they may have been right about the blue hair.

But they certainly weren't right about her going into politics. It just wasn't her thing. Besides, she was beginning to feel that she was meant to play football and she really liked just hanging out with the team. She wasn't really used to having friends, she's always been 'sheltered' because of who her parents were, but now she felt she was at least on the way to becoming friends with all of them, well excepting Sinedd (he seemed to be completely indifferent to her). Upon realising this, Tia felt a little better, she didn't want to leave the team let so they would just have to find a coach somewhere!

About an hour later the team had gathered at the studio for Arcadia news and were on live with Callie Mystic.

"This dear viewers is a story of seven brave teenagers who are willing to risk a curse upon themselves to follow their dream of playing football. I have them here in the studio with me," the camera focused on the team sitting on the sofas momentarily whilst Callie went over to them and sat with them "so, whose idea was it to make a football team?"

"It was mine," said D'jok raising a hand like he was in school.

"So what inspired you to take up football and make this team?"

"Well I always knew I had a destiny to play football, and I've been playing since I was very young and so I knew I couldn't do anything else. As for what inspired me to make a team, I had been thinking about it for a while, but it was really when I saw Tia," he gestured over to Tia "and I saw her amazing football skills that I thought that we could start a team."

"So Tia," Callie said swerving her attention from D'jok to Tia "what did you think when D'jok came to you with this proposition?"

Tia didn't particularly like being in front of the camera but she swallowed and said "Well at first I wasn't sure, but D'jok's dedication and enthusiasm convinced me," she wasn't sure whether that was a good answer, she was more focused on hoping that her parents wouldn't see the broadcast.

Callie continued to interview them for about 5 minutes, about what they were doing, until at the end she gave the all important message advertising for a coach: "The team will not be able to enter the league without a coach; so please contact D'jok at 0884 686 359 to submit your applications to be coach."

After the interview. They all went home to D'jok's house and waited for the phone to ring.

And waited.

And waited.

Until after hours of waiting it finally rang.

"D'jok?" a somewhat familiar voice asked.

"Yes, it's me, are you calling to apply for coach?"

"Yes I am applying for coach. My name's Zuriel, we met once before, I don't know whether you remember me though."

"Of course I remember you. How about I give you my address and you can come over and we'll discuss your application here?"

"That's fine" Zuriel replied.

So after a little more conversation on the phone and a half an hour wait, Zuriel turned up at D'jok's door. After exchanging pleasantries they got straight down to the business of grilling Zuriel. The only problem was he was great at avoiding answering the questions.

"So, Zuriel, do you have any experience in the football business besides being a protester against repealing that ban on foreign players?"

"Yes I do," he said shortly.

It took them a while before realising he wasn't going to add what it was, so Tia mildly asked "Do you mind telling us what it was?"

"I can't release that information; but I assure you that I am qualified to be coach."

"I see; but will Adium accept that answer?"

"She will. I know Adium will accept me as coach."

To make sure that he was qualified they asked him lots of football questions and got him to critique their performance. He seemed to be a good coach, despite his frustrating lack of answers. So after some debate they decided to accept him for now. They arranged to meet him for more training sessions and then bid him goodbye.

As soon as he had gone, they all ran to D'jok's computer (it was quite old and slow), opened the internet and typed "Zuriel, football" into a search engine. All they got was 'Zuriel's football blog' which was blogged by some random blonde guy apparently also called Zuriel. They also tried 'Zuriel' on its own, and they got quite a few matches, unfortunately they were seemed to be personal sites (not one for their Zuriel though) and sites explaining the meaning of the name Zuriel. So after some time of searching they were still in the dark about their new coach although they had found out that his name meant 'one who has God as his rock' for all the good that did them.

Although by the time their appointment with Adium rolled around they were glad that they had accepted him; no-one else had even applied.

Adium really hadn't expected them to come back with a coach. She'd thought it was a pity, after all she was one of the few people who didn't believe in the 'curse', after all she had worked with the football league for years now and nothing had happened to her.

When their team actually returned with a coach she was shocked but not as shocked as she was when she realised who the coach was.

"We're here and we've brought our coach, Zuriel," D'jok said confidently.

"Yes, I can see that," Adium replied "now would you kids mind leaving the room so I can have a conversation with your coach?"

"Sure!" and variations upon were uttered by the group and they left the room.

As soon as they had Adium faced their coach and said "Artegor! I thought you were dead! No-one's seen you in years!"

"I go by Zuriel now; I legally changed my name after...well you know... And as you can see I'm not dead."

"Where have you been? Don't you think some people were worried about you?"

"I've been around," he replied waving his hands vaguely "And no I don't think anyone was worried about me, my parents could have cared less, they could keep all of their money."

"We were worried. Our team."

"Were you? I thought you were seething that I ran off to the Shadows and I took him with me."

"Not after the death we weren't," she said knowing that they had all been angry at first.

"I didn't know that," he said shortly. He remembered the time just after Aarch's death, to be honest he was in no condition to consider what the team had thought, he had been treated for smog poisoning in hospital and then he had had to stay there after treatment had ended. He wasn't eating. Or drinking. Or sleeping. They had fed him by the drip and put him on medication. They thought he was crazy. He was crazy. They had a psychologist helping him through his 'grief and survivor guilt issues' but nothing had worked not until he'd had a dream. He dreamt that Aarch had come back from the afterlife to give him a message to get out of the hospital and to do something with his life. This prompted recovery and after a while he was released. He didn't go back home; he just rented a flat on the Shadows planet, the shadows were secretive people, it was easy to get privacy.

The first thing he did was to shave his head, he'd been notorious for his fancy hair, he was unrecognisable without it. He decided to keep wearing sunglasses, he hadn't worn them on the pitch and so most people didn't realise he wore them, besides they were a present from Aarch. Then he decided to change his name legally. He'd chosen Zuriel because the only thing sustaining him was the hope that there was some form of deity and with it an afterlife. An afterlife for Aarch. And he'd got rid of his last name; Nexus, finally he cut all the ties to his 'family', he was no longer the heir to the Nexus estate, he was just a common person with no last name. He also liked going from having his name beginning with the first letter of the alphabet to having his name begin with the last. It felt like becoming a new person.

He'd started wearing all black in morning (his wardrobe had contained a lot of black before anyway). He hadn't joined up to any religion, despite newfound faith in God, but he did pray a lot. He stayed indoors mostly; he didn't want people to recognise him as Artegor, besides he knew he was still here for some reason. So he waited, until he was needed to protest and then he met the team. He was supposed to coach them, to guide them, he was sure of this.

"Before he died, did he say anything?" Adium asked snapping Zuriel out of his flashback "I know you were there with him."

"Detox."

"Detox?" Adium asked puzzled.

"It was the last thing he had the chance to say," Zuriel said trying not to show any emotion on his face.

"Oh, that's...." Adium trailed of lamely.

"Any way, getting down to business," Zuriel said straightening his tie "do you accept me as the new coach of the Akillian team?"

"Yes, of course, your team is now given league recognition; I'll give you the details of when the matches are...." Adium also went into a business mode and they proceeded to discuss details.

After about 10 minutes they remembered that the team were standing outside and called them through.

"I've made a decision," everyone on the team inhaled "You are officially recognised as the Akillian football team!"

The team was stunned. Then disbelieving. And then.... there were cheers and the whole team went bonkers in celebration (well Sinedd only sort of smiled).

"Congratulations," Adium said smiling "now is the team going to go under 'The Akillians' or another name?"

Everyone was silent then; they hadn't thought this far ahead.

**Next chapter should hopefully be soon, although I am going on expedition to Peru on the 8th of July until the 2nd of August, so if I don't post a new chapter in ages or seem to be ignoring you that'll be why. I can't guarantee I'll have any internet access during that time but hopefully they may be some internet cafes or something.... Anyway onto notes about the fic; it's my personal theory that people with surnames are from Aristocratic families...I don't really have any evidence for it but seeing as no other explanation is given as to why the majority of people don't have surnames but some do, I'll choose to believe my theory. Also I hope you don't mind the attention that is being given to Artegor/Zuriel in this chapter...he's pretty much my favourite character so...oh and I'll continue to refer to him as Zuriel as that's how he thinks of himself in this fic....To make this author note even longer I just want to say thank you to all the people who review, both anonymous and signed in, please continue to review!**


	11. Chapter 11

A future that never happened chapter 11

**Disclaimer: ****I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

**Yay, I'm back! Thanks to everyone for waiting patiently for this chapter! It took a while to write, there was a whole other version of this chapter that I had to scrap as it was rubbish. **

They had decided that they would call themselves the Akillians. At least for now; if they thought of something better then they would change it. The kids had gone to celebrate their success leaving Zuriel with a mound of jobs to do.

Firstly he got on the computer to try and arrange somewhere they could use as a training facility. Then he had to start working on strategies and positions and all that stuff. The problem with trying to hire out a place they could train in was you needed some sort of details in order to get anywhere. And although he had changed his name; he hadn't been able to do anything with his data. It would be easy for someone to find him based on his ID and fingerprints. It would also be difficult to explain how 'Zuriel' had managed to live a life completely off the grid for the past 15 years, no doubt people would think he was some sort of criminal. He would have to find some way around it; a team needed somewhere better to practice than the park.

Meanwhile; the Akillians (as they were now known) were unaware of any difficulty as they were having too much fun celebrating. They had gone to Planet Akillian first and then later they all went back to D'jok's house. There had been suggestions of going out clubbing but they were going to have their first day of real training tomorrow, so they needed their rest. Not that they were getting much rest over at D'jok's house, they were playing mad party games and generally being rowdy. At one point the neighbours had knocked on the door and asked them to quiet down.

So everybody was having a good time; that is except Sinedd. He wasn't good in these sorts of celebrations/happy occasions. He just sat around on the sidelines looking scornful; mostly because he couldn't admit to himself that he actually wanted to join in with everybody. So he just sat there bearing it; waiting for it all to be over. To his surprise, Rocket came over to talk to him, he would have though he would have been with Tia.

"Hey, Sinedd, you enjoying yourself?" he asked in friendly tones, he was quite possibly the only person who ever spoke like that to Sinedd.

In response Sinedd just gave him a scornful look; he didn't mind Rocket as much as the others but that didn't mean he was going to have 'polite' conversation with him.

"Yeah, I'm not really into parties either, this one should be wrapping up soon though if we're going to be fine for training tomorrow," Rocket said, clearly oblivious to Sinedd's mood "say, do you think our line up's okay? There's no-one who's a bad player; but I dunno, I just don't think that Micro-ice should be playing defence? He seems more like an attacker to me."

"Micro-ice is useless no matter where you put him; he should go back to mining!" he said smirking at the thought of the short boy lugging around heavy mining equipment.

Rocket opened his mouth to say something in return but he didn't think it would do much good so he just sat there with Sinedd in complete silence.

Meanwhile, D'jok was talking to Tia in the other room, Rocket had wanted to join in the conversation but he hadn't been able to work up the nerve and that's when he'd gone to talk about Sinedd.

"I wonder who we'll be facing first, I hope it's not the lightnings, we wouldn't have a chance," Tia was saying.

"Yeah, although it would be great if we could meet them though, Warren's a legend!" D'jok said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, although I think I prefer the Wambas to be honest, they are so acrobatic on the field not to mention they are friendly unlike the Rykers and the Shadows."

"Yeah, I like the Wambas too," D'jok said a little bit too quickly.

"Cool," Tia said, not really knowing or particularly wanting to carry on a conversation "um, I'm going to get a drink of water."

"Oh no! Don't! You're a guest, wait here I'll get you one," he said and ran off before Tia could protest.

About 3 minutes later he came back with her water.

"Thanks, but you really didn't have to, I'm living here and not really contributing anything so..." she trailed off, not really knowing how to explain her point.

"Don't worry about it, we wouldn't have this team without you, of course you contribute. We like having you here; unlike that other unwanted guest," he said thinking of Sinedd.

"Thanks," she said smiling.

He was about to reply when Thran, ever the voice of reason, came over to say "Don't you think we should all be getting to bed soon; we're going to have a hard day tomorrow."

"Yes alright," D'jok said grudgingly.

So after an announcement that the party was over and a bit of tidying, Micro-ice, Thran and Ahito said their goodbyes leaving Tia, D'jok, Rocket and Sinedd with most of the cleanup. Not that Sinedd actually did any proper cleaning or tidying, he just shuffled things a bit, looking like he was tidying (it was a trick he had used many times when he had been made to participate in chores in the orphanage.)

By the time they got into their beds it was 12 and they were meeting Artegor at 7'oClock. That meant getting up at 6. So they would get about 6 hours max sleep.

They barely felt like they had got any sleep when it was time to wake up and go train. Despite the earliness they were all energetic and excited for their first official training session.

So they got up, did all the usual things and then rushed to their meeting place. Everyone was on time, well, everyone except Micro-ice.

"Sorry, I'm late!" he said running up to them at twenty minutes past 7.

"Why are you late?" Zuriel asked irritation in his voice.

"Sorry, I overslept!"

"In future you will arrive on time," Zuriel said in a voice that allowed no contradictions.

After Micro-ice's reprimand was done, he made his announcement "Everybody, I have secured our training ground, but unfortunately it doesn't include any living accommodation, I hope that won't be a problem."

Sinedd muttered something inaudible about having to live with D'jok but other than that no-one objected.

"Right then, we'll take a bus to our new training ground then." And they did.

It had taken a while before Zuriel had found the place; it was ideal; local, big, and just what they needed. And then there had been the question of how he would secure the place without using his details. So in the end he'd had to do something he really didn't want to.

He'd called Adium. Explained that he couldn't do it and so she did him a favour. He hated it when he had to ask for help; he only wanted to do things by himself. He especially didn't want her help. It was awkward. She'd given him a lecture. She'd sounded like the mother he hadn't seen in years. She'd wanted him to unveil himself to the world. He couldn't do that. She called him Artegor; but he wasn't really him anymore. It made him nervous, knowing that she knew who he used to be, he had told her not to release the information to anyone but could she really be trusted? For all he knew she blamed him for Aarch's death; after all he had dragged him off to the shadows.

They arrived after about 5 minutes. They all got off the bus and went through the door onto the pitch.

"Your training starts now," Zuriel said sternly.

**Next chapter soon (hopefully). Sorry that this one is quite short and not very eventful. **


	12. Chapter 12

A future that never happened chapter 12

**Disclaimer****: I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

"I can't feel my feet," Micro-ice groaned a long training session later.

"I can feel them all too well," Thran piped in.

"Quit whining, we have to train in order to fulfil our destiny, remember we have a match in a week's time and we are barely ready."

Zuriel had announced that they had a friendly match with the Wambas in a week's time, which meant that they had to train hard although they weren't sure that Zuriel knew the meaning of the word soft. After that it was going into qualifiers and if they survived those...the final 16 at Genesis Stadium. So in the mean-time they had to train properly; not like their feeble attempts previously.

Their training wasn't all that was being affected. Zuriel had given them strict instructions for what they could eat, what time they had to go to bed at night, all sorts of things. Sinedd felt like he was back at the Orphanage, with stupid 'authority figures' telling him what to do, still at least this way there was the promise of glory and cash galore. It was worth taking orders for a while.

So they all went to bed early, no complaints, they were all tired anyway. The alarm seemed to go off only minutes after they had all gone to bed and they were all up for their second training session. This training session was much like the last, mostly consisting of dribbling, using various fitness machines, practicing shooting etc. And then playing a match. They were split into two teams; Team one was Sinedd, Tia, Thran and Micro-ice, Team two was Ahito, D'jok and Rocket. It was at 1-1 and both teams were playing on good form. Zuriel was shouting at them not to hold anything back (he had to admit that being back in football was making him feel a bit more like his old self), so Tia took a deep breath and summoned up that blue energy that she didn't really understand. She shot into the sky and kicked the ball into the goal. She hadn't been consciously aware of it but she hadn't mentioned her unique skill to anyone on the team. It felt good not to be holding back anymore; even if she hadn't been aware that she was doing it.

When she came back down to earth, she was aware that people were staring at her, in shock or awe. It was enough to make her feel more than slightly uncomfortable.

Luckily Zuriel broke the silence by saying "well done Tia that was a nice goal, now everybody, carry on!"

And everybody did. Afterwards Tia was summoned to Zuriel's office to talk.

After practice, Tia changed out of her training clothes and slowly, nervously, climbed the stairs that lead to Zuriel's office. She took a minute to make sure she was completely composed before knocking on the door. Zuriel opened it and gestured that she should come in.

"You have the breath of Akillian," Zuriel said in a tone that was half way between a statement and a question.

Tia was unsure as to how she was expected to answer "is that what it's called?" she said after a moments hesitation.

"Yes, it was the flux of the Akillian team, how long have you had it?" he asked again more insistent.

"Ever since I was little; I can't remember being without it."

"I see," Zuriel said looking a little troubled.

"Is there a problem, sir?"

"No, not at all, your teammates will hopefully be developing 'The Breath' soon as well. You can go now."

"Thank you, sir," Tia said scuttling out of the room and heading back to D'jok's.

When she got there, she was bombarded with questions from D'jok about her skill but luckily he seemed really interested rather than freaked out. Rocket was also hanging with them, he didn't say much but he kept smiling at her encouragingly. Suddenly Tia felt lucky to have such good friends. She had always felt like a freak and outsider but here she felt accepted for the first time in her life. Although, on the topic of outsiders Sinedd was no-where to be seen during this conversation and he still hadn't returned to D'jok's by the time everyone had gone to bed.

In fact he got in a couple of hours after Zuriel's curfew and snuck into his 'bed' on the floor in what he thought was a very surreptitious fashion.

"Where have you been?" Rocket whispered, having being woken up by Sinedd's not so stealthy sneaking.

"None of your business," snapped Sinedd automatically (he was used to replying like this when someone asked him a question that was even remotely personal).

"Well you did come in and wake me up so it is kind of my business, not to mention that your sleep levels and activities are team business," said Rocket feeling cranky at being woken up.

"Sorry," Sinedd said without realising what he was saying, he internally kicked himself for showing weakness.

"It's okay, so where did you go?"

"Out," Sinedd said determined not to give anything else away. Rocket had enough sense to realise that he wasn't going to get anything else out of Sinedd so he rolled over and almost immediately fell back to sleep.

A week's training went by fairly uneventfully; time just seemed to fly by to the point where they were on a space-shuttle to the Wambas Planet for a friendly match.

Zuriel gave them a short speech and the official Akillian kit to wear and then they were out on the field.

The first half didn't go particularly well, the Wambas scored one goal, which wasn't as bad as it could have been. In the dressing room at half time, Zuriel told them to get their act together and then they were back on the field for the second half.

The second half went a little better, they got the ball to Tia and she scored, unfortunately the Wambas also scored another goal, meaning that they won the game 2-1.

In the changing room they were all quiet for a long time. They had played their first match and they had lost. Micro-ice had made some cheery comment about how it was 'only' a friendly match but it fell flat.

They all went back to their respective homes and mostly kept themselves to themselves.

Meanwhile Zuriel was working late in his office, devising new strategies, a new training routine. From their match today the new Akillians had shown that they weren't yet ready to play in the League yet and he had so little time to prepare them. He had started writing down several plans for the team before he was interrupted by a loud knock at his door, demanding that he open it.

"Who would come here at this time of night?" he wondered as he went to open the door. His question was answered when he saw two Akillian police officers standing there.

"Hello? What can I do for you officers?"

"We're looking for this girl," the taller of the two officers said "she ran away from her parents and I believe she is playing on your team."

"She is. I wasn't aware of her situation at home though," Zuriel answered, truthfully.

"Well, we'll need to take her home immediately."

"On what grounds?"

"What?" the shorter officer asked as if he were deaf.

"What grounds do you have for removing her from the team? She at least 16, the legal age for employment, therefore there are no legal grounds for taking her from the team back to her former home."

"Well...you can't just take a girl away from her parents...they are worried."

"They know where she is, she isn't a missing person, to join a team was her choice. You have no legal grounds to take her away against her wishes."

"Sorry to have wasted your time," the police officers mumbled and walked off knowing that they were defeated.

**On Obia Moon....**

Tia's parent's scowled at the report they were getting from the police. Not only had they failed to retrieve Tia, they had also said that they couldn't legally do anything about it and that her coach had been adamant that she stays. Naturally they were more than a bit annoyed.

"I think we need to discover more about this 'Zuriel' who is standing between us and our daughter," Tia's father said, determined not to let it go.

**Next chapter should been soon-ish hopefully. In this chapter I didn't really describe the Wamba's match in much detail and I'm not planning to describe any of the other matches in detail either. I hope that's okay because I don't really think the matches are the main point of the fanfiction. **


	13. Chapter 13

A future that never happened chapter 13

**Disclaimer: ****I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

**Sorry that this chapter took a while, I just started 6****th**** form and they are piling on the work, but I'll update as fast as possible.**

Sinedd walked down the street, making sure no-one was following him. He didn't really think anyone would be except perhaps Rocket who had seemed suspicious when he hadn't got in until late last night. He didn't actually know why he was still meeting with them. They were losers, they couldn't help him advance in anyway but maybe it was their devotion to him that he missed. Everyone in the Snow Kids was wary of him, some like D'jok and Micro-ice was outright antagonistic. But they worshipped him.

He was a loner by nature but after living a few weeks on the streets he had realised that there were advantages to having a gang. He got to order people about and get other people to do his dirty work and he didn't have to give them anything in return. Still they were pretty pathetic, they thought they were amazing footballers, yeah right. They also seemed to think that Sinedd actually cared about them, that they were part of his family. They didn't seem to realise that he never had a family and if he did he wouldn't have let them in it. So all in all they were pretty deluded. They liked to think that they were cool and tough but in reality they were all a bunch of rich kids acting up to get their parents' attention.

But here he was, playing the leader of the gang, their king. The problem was they were making too many unreasonable demands of him.

"But we can play better than them, you have to get us onto the team," one of them whined (he had never bothered to learn their names; they all sort of merged into one).

"Yeah Sinedd, just imagine it....our family as a winning football team," another one piped in, with several "yeahs" of agreement from some of the others.

"No. First of all: I am not the coach. Secondly even if I could I wouldn't allow you lot onto my team. You lot can barely kick a ball let alone actually playing football. Why would I want you losers to drag me down?"

"Sinedd," the first one whinged again, "we aren't losers, you're one of us, besides you'll think of a way to get us onto that team..."

"No. Listen, I am not one of you. I led you for a little while because it was convenient for me but you are of no use now so you can keep your gang, what was that stupid name again?"

"The Red tigers! It's not a stupid name; it shows how we are strong like tigers...it sounds cool!"

"It sounds like a toddler's playgroup. Well whatever, you can call it what you like because I am no part of it," Sinedd said walking off.

"Sinedd wait!"

He just ignored them; smirking as he walked off into the distance. That had felt good. To finally cut loose those pathetic hangers-on of his.

Meanwhile on Obia Moon...

"Well, that certainly is interesting information," Tia's father said thoughtfully.

"It took me long enough to find so it should be. It clear that he doesn't want anyone to know...too bad for him...he never should have taken our daughter away from us because now everyone will know the exact whereabouts of the elusive Artegor Nexus..."

Back on Akillian, on the training field...

"You were defeated but this is but one setback. The next match is a qualifiers; against the Rykers. Now the Rykers are a tough team to beat, they play aggressively, so until the match you will all have to train hard. Forget about everything else. Now get to work!"

"He doesn't have to be such a dictator," Micro-ice grumbled to D'jok as they were running up and down the field.

"Stop chatting and run!" Zuriel shouted before D'jok had the chance to reply. Grudgingly they did and no-one tried to talk much during the rest of the training session.

When D'jok, Sinedd, Tia and Rocket got home, they turned on the tv as usual and were talking and not really paying attention as usual until they realised what the news was about.

"Yes, dear viewers, this is breaking news. The Coach of the newly formed Akillian team is in fact Artegor Nexus, former Akillian and Shadows player. As you recall, he disappeared for years with no trace, presumed dead but in fact he is alive and well! This information was brought to light by the Obia Moon ambassadors, parents of Tia, one of the players on Zuriel's or should I say Artegor's team. We have not been able to get a hold of Artegor for an interview but rest assured, dear viewers; Callie Mystic will keep you updated!"

"What?" they all burst out after the programme had finished.

"He's Artegor Nexus..." D'jok said surprised he hadn't recognised him.

"He lied to us," Rocket said flatly.

"There must have been reasons that he didn't tell us, he didn't tell anyone," Tia said softly.

"I can't believe any of you trusted him in the first place. It was so obvious he was hiding something," Sinedd interjected scornfully.

"Was it? He seemed genuine to me," D'jok said.

"He's an 'authority figure'; they always have something to hide...."

Zuriel had also watched the news. He couldn't believe that this was really happening. He had always suspected that there might come a day where his identity would be revealed but thinking about it and having it actually happen were two entirely different things. He couldn't process it and he didn't have chance to begin to as the phone rang. He wasn't going to pick it up but it was Adium calling so he figured he probably should.

"Hello," he said shortly.

"Hello, Artegor, I presume you have seen the news."

"Yes."

"You know you have to give an interview."

"What? I don't have to do anything. I never wanted this to happen."

"Well you have to. You have to explain. How do you think it makes me look; I am the League President, it's going to look bad for me that I helped you hide, the least you could do is give an interview."

"Why don't you give one; release an official statement, something like that..."

"Artegor! I know you like your privacy, but I'm sorry but you can't avoid this. I'll book you in for an interview; okay."

"I can't."

"You can and you will. I'm sorry Artegor but I can't be flexible on this. I'll call you when I have arranged it," she said, hanging up before Zuriel could say anything.

He buried his head in his hands. It was all falling apart.

"This is going to be hard," Tia thought that morning whilst she was brushing her teeth in the bathroom, half an hour before training. Firstly there was the entire fact that their Coach was Artegor Nexus, a household name who eventually became more famous for the mystery of his disappearance than for any thing he had ever done. Then there was the fact that her parents had released the information. She couldn't help but feel guilty about that. Because she had joined this team he had been forced to stop hiding. It was her fault; or at least partially. The others were angry with Zuriel...Artegor...whoever but she had to admit that she sympathised. She had run away to Akillian, tried to get away from the life as a 'diplomats' daughter', she couldn't really blame Artegor for doing the same, what had happened to him had been far more traumatic. After she had rinsed her mouth of toothpaste, she raised her head and saw that she was getting white roots. It wasn't a good look and although she hated to admit it, she thought that maybe her parents had been right about the blue hair after all.

**I'll get the next chapter out as soon as possible. Please review; reviews make my day!**


	14. Chapter 14

A future that never happened chapter 14

**Disclaimer:** **I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

**Sorry for the long gap between the last update and this one. I have just had tons of essays etc. to do so I didn't have that much time to write.**

"Right everyone, practice your dribbling," Zuriel said, just pretending that nothing had happened, after all, what else could he do?

He couldn't run away. He still was the Coach of this team. Aarch would have wanted him to stick with the team.

"No, Coach, you lied to us. You told us your name was Zuriel. You lied about your entire identity," D'jok said, voicing what some of the others were thinking but too afraid or polite to say.

"My name is Zuriel, now get to work, we have a match coming up," he said sharply.

"Really? I thought your name was Artegor Nexus?" D'jok said, not willing to drop it just yet.

"I legally changed my name to Zuriel years ago. Now do you want to play football or would you rather stand around all day gossiping?"

There was some mumbling and shuffling around but eventually they started to do as they were told. Even D'jok; after all he didn't want to screw up his shot at glory.

After the training Zuriel got into his office just in time to get the phone call he'd been dreading. When he saw that it was Adium calling he debated not picking up but he decided that he better get it over with and so reluctantly he picked up the phone.

"Hello, Adium."

"Hello, Artegor, you'll be glad to know that I have organised your interview with Callie Mystic. I hope you didn't have anything planned for tonight..."

Later that night on TV...

"Well dear viewers, I promised an interview and here we have it, in the studio today is Artegor Nexus. Welcome Artegor; so why did you conceal your identity to become Coach of the newly formed Akillian team?"

"My name is Zuriel; I would rather you addressed me as such."

"Okay, Zuriel, so why did you change your name?"

"It was simply a matter of protecting my privacy," he said vaguely, not really wanting to delve into to murky waters of the past.

"So where have you been for all this time anyway? It must have been pretty hard to go anywhere without being recognised," Callie asked in curious tones.

"I stayed on the Shadow's Planet."

"And what were your reasons for hiding? Everyone on Akillian was very concerned that you might have been dead," she said in more a more serious voice.

"I have no control over what people think," he was trying to answer the questions in the shortest and least revealing way possible.

"But what about your former teammates on the Akillian team? Why didn't you contact them and tell them where you were?"

"I merely wished to be left alone," he said not adding that the Akillian team hadn't been too pleased with him for running off to the Shadows and he doubted that they would have cared at all. No doubt they had blamed him for Aarch's death; he was the one to persuade him to come with him to the Shadows after all.

"Yes, I can see that you are certainly very secretive. But moving on...how do you think the news has affected your team's chances?"

"It has made no effect whatsoever. I am still the same Coach; they are still the same players."

"I see, well thank you Artegor, I wish your team good luck in their upcoming matches," she then turned to look directly at the camera "well, there you have it dear viewers, the story of what happened to Artegor Nexus, remember to stay tuned for all the latest football news!"

D'jok turned off the TV in disgust. They hadn't really been able to learn anything from that interview. Why did their Coach have to be so secretive? If he didn't want to reveal anything about himself to the entire galaxy then fair enough but he could at least trust them with some basic information. How could he expect them to trust him as a Coach when he didn't trust them? He was just so frustrated he could scream.

Instead he stood up, dramatically, impulsively bursting out "you know what? Screw Zuriel and his curfew! Let's go out somewhere!"

"Where?" Tia asked, tiredly, not wanting to get up from the sofa, let alone go anywhere.

"Out! To a club or..." he stopped and sensing the lack of energy and enthusiasm from the others, weakly finished "Pizza?"

Sinedd, Rocket and Tia mumbled vaguely their agreements and they dragged themselves off the sofa to go.

Pizza was a low key event mostly because D'jok, who seemed to be full of beans, was the one doing most of the talking. He got a strange pleasure from this little rebellion against their Coach. As he looked round at his teammates who also occupied the table he was suddenly struck by how close they had all become. Even hanging out with Sinedd had started to become more normal and although they still argued it was happening less frequently than it had previously. He then considered Rocket, he was very used to his presence by now, but he still found it difficult to think of anything that he really knew about the guy. He seemed to be the secretive type much like Zuriel. Then he came to look at Tia and he found himself blushing as he did. Tia was beautiful, not to mention an excellent footballer, he had come to find that over the time that he had known her that he _liked _Tia, he really liked Tia. He hadn't come up with a plan yet; or decided whether he was going to do anything about it but he felt a sense of urgency. After all, Tia was the only girl on the team; no doubt he wouldn't be the only one competing for her affections. By the time they had all left the Pizza place and gone to bed, he still hadn't decided on his course of action.

The next day of training was tense; it was to be their last before their next match: a qualifier against the Rykers. The fact that this match was a qualifier made it nerve-wracking enough. But the fact that it was against the fearsome Rykers just added even more pressure. They all knew they were at a disadvantage, they were an inexperience team with little flux, what chance did they stand?

Micro-ice was exceedingly glad when practice was finally over. The pressure that was getting to everyone was making them mess up, not Micro-ice of course; he was as cool as a cucumber. Like he always said; there was more to life than football. The others clearly didn't think that way (Zuriel clearly didn't, he had been shouting even more than usual during that practice). The whole team situation felt extremely odd to Micro-ice. Co-operating with Sinedd was always going to be weird but the housing situation at D'jok's house was even weirder. 'The four' as Micro-ice had begun to refer to them in his head were always going off and doing stuff together after practice. Micro-ice was usually a happy-go-lucky sort of guy, but this bothered him. Although they may have drifted a little apart since the end of school he and D'jok had always undeniably been best friends. Together through thick and thin; they used to hang out a lot. It used to just be assumed that if D'jok were going somewhere or doing something that Micro-ice would be going too. But now he was rarely invited. Despite being on a team with D'jok, he barely got to see him outside of practice. Sinedd, D'jok's and Micro-ice's despised rival seemed to be closer to D'jok than Micro-ice ever was. He sighed and walked back home a little moodily, wondering what fun things 'the four' were up to.

The answer in fact was that they were doing nothing in particular. Tia went to bed early, sensibly, to make sure she was rested for the match. Sinedd went for a walk around (this time his walk really was just a walk) and then went to bed at a reasonable hour. D'jok paced around anxiously, making some grand, sweeping statements about destiny whilst Rocket politely listened and nodded at all the right places. There was no fun to be had that night.

When the next morning came, a sense of frenzy seem to come over them, they had to be up early to meet Zuriel and the rest of the team and then to travel all the way over to the Rykers' planet. The morning was a flurry of unnecessary preparations and worrying over minor details so that they barely had any time to breathe before leaving D'jok's house and going over to meet the others.

It turned out they were actually early by ten minutes so they waited in silence for Zuriel and the rest of the team to show up. When they did show up they quickly got onto the shuttle and then began the long journey to the Rykers' planet.

Once the journey had begun some of the tension began to let up. The whole team seemed to burst into lively conversation and several rounds of cards were played. However as they drew closer to Unadar all the tension seemed to come rushing back and another uneasy silence descended on the team.

They soon landed on Unadar and were immediately hit by the poisonous gases in the atmosphere. Zuriel had remembered what it was like there and so had brought protective gas masks for all the team. They were then showed to their rooms and given a little time to recover from the journey. But the time seemed to fly to the point where they were in the changing rooms being given a motivating speech by Zuriel.

And then they were on the field. And the first half did not go well. The Rykers scored 2 goals and the Akillians none. Tia came close to scoring but the Kernor blocked the shot with ease. The referee seemed to be completely oblivious to fouls from the Rykers as well. Micro-ice had been tripped up by one of the Ryker attackers and the referee had done nothing. Luckily he wasn't severely injured but he was a little sore and his pride was definitely bruised. In the end it seemed like nothing they could do would defeat the giants that were the Rykers.

At half time they had a temporary rest and a stern talk from Zuriel about strategy.

The second half went a little better. In the first few minutes Tia managed to surprise the Rykers and score a goal. Although the Rykers scored another goal, there were two others which Ahito managed to block. And in the last few minutes D'jok had hold of the ball, determined to score, felt something strange. It wasn't until he had scored until he realised that he had used the Breath! And it felt fantastic. The match ended 2-3 to the Rykers.

Although they had lost to the Rykers the team were in fairly good spirits at the end of the match. It hadn't been the crushing defeat that had been predicted and another of their team had got the Breath. That had to prove that it was within their reach for all of them to grasp; it showed that Tia wasn't just a one off.

D'jok in particular was feeling good about himself. He had the Breath and he had scored a goal. He decided on the way back what he was going to do about Tia. He was going to go for what he wanted and he was going to win. He was feeling invincible.

When they got back to D'jok's house Sinedd and Rocket conveniently disappeared off to somewhere (D'jok wasn't concerned about where they were going or whether they were going together at this point in time) making it seem like destiny that this would all happen. He sat on the sofa and made some small talk about the match for a while before summoning his nerve and saying "so Tia, I, um, need to talk to you about something."

"What is it?" Tia asked, she was a little concerned, every time someone said that they wanted 'to talk about something' instead of just launching into whatever it was, it usually ended up being something horrible. Tia wondered what it was that D'jok could have to say. Suddenly the thought struck her that maybe D'jok was going to tell her that she could no longer stay at his house; she really hoped that it wasn't what he was going to say.

He paused, his face turning a deep red "I...we have become good friends now...haven't we?" Tia nodded and D'jok continued "the thing is, I really like you...in not just a friendly way, would you please be go out with me sometime?" he said all in a rush. He looked up at Tia and waited for her reaction, nervously.

**Find out how Tia reacts in the next chapter. I hope the confession scene came out okay; I found it hard to write, but ah well, it's supposed to be awkward for D'jok anyway. I'm not really sure why I put in the pairing of Tia/D'jok as I don't support it, but it just felt natural to the story (if that makes sense). Please review; reviews are awesome!**


	15. Chapter 15

A future that never happened chapter 15

**Disclaimer: I still do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

**Hasn't this fic been going on for ages? And it's still nowhere near finished; there is loads more plot to come until it ends. **

"D'jok..." Tia started but was unable to finish. She was just in total shock. If there were signs, she had completely missed them. Poor D'jok looked so embarrassed and he was waiting for an answer. But she didn't know what to do. She liked D'jok, as a friend, he had offered her his home, he had created this team knowing the odds were stacked against them...what reason did she have to say no?

"Yes," she said in a rush, his expression she felt she needed to repeat herself "yes, I'll go out with you." She smiled at him but internally she thought 'What have I done?' she just had this sinking feeling inside that perhaps her answer was the wrong one. But she couldn't take it back now- that would be cruel.

D'jok smiled "Great! How's tomorrow sound? We could go out for Pizza!"

"Tomorrow's good," Tia said trying to sound excited and enthusiastic.

"Great!" D'jok said again, looking happy.

Tia tried to convince herself that she had made the right decision; that that feeling was just nerves. That she should at least give a D'jok a chance. But that feeling in her gut just wouldn't go away.

Meanwhile Rocket was at Zuriel's office. He'd gone out 'for a walk' with a purpose; he'd wanted to ask about his Uncle. His father wouldn't say anything about the subject and Rocket so knew nothing about him besides what the news at that time had said. It was natural curiosity and a desire to feel closer to his family.

"After all," thought Rocket "my mother is dead and my father won't speak to me. I can't pass up the chance to learn about my Uncle."

He'd gone left D'jok's intending to go alone but Sinedd had been going out for one of his walks (he didn't have anywhere to go, it was just a habit from when he used to live at the Orphanage- he would go walking to minimise the time he had to spend in that place) and he looked so lonely out there in the snow, that Rocket had invited him to come with him.

To Rocket's slight surprise Sinedd accepted. So here they were. Rocket was inside Zuriel's office and Sinedd was waiting outside.

"Rocket," Zuriel said in the closest thing he had to a friendly tone "what do you want?"

"Um, I was just wondering if you could tell me about my Uncle, Aarch. Since you knew him and all...my father won't tell me anything about him and I thought..."

"I see. What about him did you want to know?"

"Well," Rocket, considered for a moment "what he was like, just generally I guess."

"Hmmm, what he was like? Aarch was...he was a good person; he was kind, a little naive...he was completely obsessed with football. He was quite single-minded when it came to that. He had a great sense of humour. And he was such a dreamer," Zuriel trailed off, he was trying to sound neutral but he feared that emotion was spilling into his voice.

Rocket took it all in, and nodded seriously "Thank you, sir, I'll just be going now, goodbye," he left the room hastily. Zuriel had this clouded expression on his face and Rocket didn't really want to upset him further. He could understand how recalling things about your now deceased best friend could be painful.

Rocket jumped at the sight of Sinedd lurking outside the office; he'd forgotten that he'd invited Sinedd along.

"How was it?" Sinedd asked, sounding more indifferent than interested.

"Well, I learned some stuff, not much but...anything's better than nothing."

Sinedd just nodded to this, thinking about his parents, or rather about the fact that he knew nothing of them. They walked along in silence all the way back to D'jok's house.

When they opened the door they were greeted with the sight of a triumphant looking D'jok, a silly grin plastered all over his face. Sinedd didn't know what had made him so happy but the look on D'jok's face was so irritating that he wanted to punch him hard until his teeth fell out. Then he wouldn't be grinning.

"What's going on?" Rocket asked, in response to D'jok's aura of jubilance.

"I'm going out on a date tomorrow!" he said in slightly boastful tones. After all he'd never seen Sinedd or Rocket get a date.

"That's nice for you," Rocket said diplomatically, then just to be polite, he asked "who with?"

D'jok grinned again "Tia! Who else?"

"Oh," Rocket said quietly. He felt this sudden sense of crushing disappointment. In fact he felt like he was on the verge of tears. D'jok didn't notice of course being way too caught up in his own victory but Sinedd did. He'd noted Rocket's tone and facial expression. Now he wanted not only to punch D'jok but Rocket too. To snap him out of it. In Sinedd's opinion both D'jok and Rocket were being moronic. But then he expected that from D'jok. Perhaps it was Rocket's football skills or perhaps it was something else, but Sinedd had higher expectations of Rocket for some reason. They were all there to play football not to go chasing after girls or to go on dates. Besides he couldn't see what was so special about Tia anyway. She was an okay-ish footballer Sinedd supposed, but he just didn't see the attraction.

Later on that evening, Rocket was making himself a snack before bed, when Tia came into the kitchen to get a glass of water. He looked away and wasn't even going to say anything.

That didn't go to plan as Tia engaged him directly in conversation "hi, what are you making?"

It would have been rude not to answer.

"Oh, hi, Tia, I didn't see you," he said lamely "I'm just making some toast, do you want some?"

"No thanks; I don't like to eat before I go to bed."

There was an awkward silence for a minute before Rocket said "I..ummm...heard about you and D'jok, congratulations."

"Thanks," Tia said, looking down at her toes, then she downed her glass of water said "goodnight" and went back to her room leaving Rocket to finish making his toast.

Rocket sighed and quickly ate his toast after he had finished making it and crawled onto his mattress on the floor. Sinedd sincerely hoped that Rocket wasn't going to keep him awake by crying himself to sleep or anything stupid like that.

D'jok awoke to the next day with enthusiasm; today was his date with Tia! All that day, training seemed to drag on and on and for once he wished it would be over sooner than it was (although he paid attention during training, their next match was important) he was relieved when training was over.

Tia wondered what one was supposed to do in preparation for a date. She'd not exactly been on one before. She supposed that you were supposed to put make-up on or change into some pretty clothes but she didn't really have any nice clothes with her and she certainly didn't have make-up. Ah well, D'jok had asked her out as she was, so he'd better accept her as she was.

Two hours later and D'jok and Tia are sitting together in a restaurant, just having ordered their Pizza.

"So, are you looking forward to the next match?" D'jok asked, eager to get conversation going.

"Um, yeah, I'm nervous though. We need to win this match," Tia said seriously.

"I know but I think we can do it," D'jok said nodding.

The conversation carried on in this vein and although there were no awkward silences, Tia was glad when the Pizza came.

Meanwhile, back at D'jok's house, Rocket and Sinedd were alone in the house together. Sinedd was watching the football as there was really nothing better to do; whilst Rocket was pacing in the kitchen, going crazy thinking about Tia and D'jok. After a few minutes Sinedd realised that Rocket wasn't watching the football and that was just abnormal for Rocket.

"Oi, Rocket!" he shouted from where he was sitting on the sofa (why should he get up to chase after Rocket?)

Rocket emerged from the kitchen, a little sheepishly "what is it?"

"You're missing the football!"

Rocket reluctantly walked over to the sofa and sat next to Sinedd.

"You better snap out of this you know," Sinedd said, seemingly at random.

"What?" Rocket asked defensively.

"Football is the only thing that should matter."

"What are you talking about, Sinedd?"

"Don't think I haven't noticed you mooning over Tia; it's pathetic!"

"I don't think that's any of your business," Rocket looked away, trying to hide his blush from Sinedd.

"It is my business. I want to win the next match, so you better play your best," Sinedd threatened, poking Rocket to emphasise his point.

"Thanks for the advice," Rocket said, flatly.

"I have to look out for my career," Sinedd said as justification.

Rocket broke into a smile "you say that, Sinedd but I know you care about our team."

"Don't count on it, Rocket," Sinedd said almost too quickly, "I don't care about any of you losers!"

"Thanks for looking out for me, man," Rocket said, clapping Sinedd on the shoulder in a manly fashion. He just completely ignored all of Sinedd's protests on selfishness.

Sinedd muttered under his breath that he didn't care about Rocket at all but he was too taken aback to do much else. He was used to people thinking the worst of him, that he could handle, but someone thinking that his actions were caring and selfless? He wasn't sure what to do about that. Although they didn't really talk anymore during the football match, Sinedd kept seeing Rocket giving him smiles, as if to reassure him that he was really okay. It was enough to make Sinedd want to throw up.

Meanwhile back at the Pizza restaurant....

Tia had found that things had got a lot less awkward. She and D'jok were talking about all sorts of things, from childhood stories to favourite colours. She was actually having fun. D'jok had started to hold her hand about 5 minutes ago whilst they were waiting for the bill. His hand was warm and it was a lot mor pleasant than she had anticipated. It was just nerves before. This had been nice; so if D'jok asked her out again she planned to say "Yes." After all, D'jok was friendly and not too romantic- which Tia supposed was a good thing. It would have been way too overwhelming if D'jok had started acting like a knight in shining armour or something like that. He was down to earth. Besides, Tia reminded herself, they had a lot in common- them both being football players and all. The bill finally came and they paid and then left to go back to D'jok's.

**I'm going to try and update a lot more frequently; so hopefully the next chapter will be up next week! Happy Samhain everyone! Please review!**


	16. Chapter 16

A future that never happened chapter 16

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

As soon as D'jok got back into his room he called Micro-ice. He wanted to tell someone all about his date.

"Hello?" Micro-ice, sleepily answered the phone.

"Micro-ice! Guess what?"

"What?" Micro-ice asked flatly, he was still annoyed with D'jok for never hanging out with him anymore.

"Sound more interested!" said D'jok, completely oblivious to Micro-ice's dissatisfaction.

"What?" Micro-ice exclaimed, in false tones of enthusiasm.

D'jok either didn't notice his sarcasm or was just too excited to hold in his confession any longer "I went out with Tia! Can you believe it?"

"What?" Micro-ice said for a third time "I didn't even know that you liked her! D'jok!"

"Well I wasn't going to make it obvious was I? But yeah; I really like her! And she likes me! It's almost like destiny!"

"Does your destiny include ignoring your friends?" Micro-ice asked, unable to contain his annoyance any longer.

"What are you talking about?" D'jok asked, genuinely bewildered.

"I'm talking about you ditching me," he cried out "I mean you hang out with Sinedd more than with me. Sinedd! I thought you hated the guy! All of a sudden he's your new best friend!"

"Micro-ice, Sinedd is not my best friend, what's up with you?"

"What's up with me? What's up with you? You have three strangers living in your house and suddenly it's like they are your best friends."

"Micro-ice," D'jok said, annoyance starting to creep into his voice "you're overacting. I had to take them in for the team!"

"Well can't they live elsewhere? They'll have money soon enough!"

"What has gotten into you?" D'jok said taken aback by Micro-ice's rage.

"You're not spending any time with me, D'jok, and it's not like you don't have time either. You're just too caught up with your new friends."

"Tia is my girlfriend now; so of course I'll spend time with her. It's not like I spend my time hanging out with Sinedd who is definitely not my friend. Not to mention the fact I barely even speak to Rocket," he said rationally.

"You speak to him more than you do to me!" Micro-ice replied although having nothing to back up this statement.

"I'm talking to you know aren't you?"

"But I bet that you told your new best buddies, Sinedd and Rocket, about you and Tia first.

"Well," D'jok started, not having an argument as what Micro-ice said was true even though he had just told them because they were there; it wasn't a personal slight to Micro-ice.

"That's what I thought! Some friend you are!"

"But Micro-ice..." D'jok was cut off by the loud droning sound that told him that Micro-ice had hung up. D'jok put the phone down; although that wasn't too pleasant he wasn't worried- Micro-ice was usually quite temperamental. It would be fine tomorrow. He walked out of his room.

As he came out of his room Tia (who had overheard the argument) asked him, concernedly "are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's just Micro-ice, he's like that- always overreacting about something," he said, putting on an brave smile.

Tia nodded; despite not really being taken by D'jok's explanation.

"So you want to go out tomorrow night?" he asked, to change the subject.

"Sure, where do you want to go?"

D'jok considered for a moment "how about bowling?"

"Great," Tia said smiling, "bowling sounds fun!" They smiled at each other; neither of them sure where to go with the conversation.

Training the next day was a little awkward. Micro-ice still didn't seem to be speaking to D'jok and was glaring at him at every opportunity. D'jok still wasn't worried though; he was more worried about the match against the Rykers coming up. He and Tia got lots of chances to practice together as they were the ones with the Breath. D'jok loved that the Breath gave him a chance to smile at Tia as well as the general benefits to having the Breath.

When Tia arrived back at D'jok', a couple of hours before their second date, the first thing she did was to head straight for the shower. Grinning as she stood under the shower head, she did what she had been thinking of for a while, and washed the last traces of blue dye from her hair. She felt much happier now that her hair was back to its normal gleaming white- she looked more like herself again. She got dressed in a blue t-shirt that she had brought with her to Akillian but not had the chance to wear and some jeans. It was hardly a feminine ensemble but it was nicer than her usual outfit. She found she was actually a little excited about her second date with D'jok.

And Bowling was fun. Tia found that she beat D'jok by a long shot; she even managed to get a couple of strikes. Tia didn't think that D'jok was too happy about her winning (perhaps this was his competitive side coming out) but he hid it as best he could and made a show of good sportsmanship. This date was far less awkward than the last one and Tia now knew about D'jok personally. For example she learned that she hated his 'destiny speeches', they had been funny the first few times, but now she found them boring to the point of being irritating. But she liked how he treated her; with respect and politeness but also as a fellow footballer. He appealed to both her tomboyish side and her more secret hidden girly side which was nice. They decided to eat out after they had finished bowling although they decided to go for fast food this time.

Meanwhile...

Sinedd had decided that Rocket needed to get some fresh air instead of just moping around the house so he had asked Rocket for a walk in the form of telling him that they should "get some exercise to prepare for the upcoming matches." After all Sinedd didn't want to fuel Rocket's misguided idea that he cared about him.

They weren't taking any path in particular until something caught Sinedd's eye. A couple of Wambas. That on itself was unusual but unless Sinedd was mistaken they were former players for the Wambas team. Sinedd made a gesture with his head in that direction and Rocket looked where he was indicating. He looked back at Sinedd and nodded. They then started following in the direction they were headed in. They got close enough to overhear them but not so much to seem suspicious.

"It's a pain having to come all the way to Akillian; why this tiny planet of all places?"

"The thing is nobody would think to look here. This place is so sleepy it is the perfect cover for it. The authorities would most likely shut the place down if they found out about it."

Sinedd was even more intrigued by this exchange; he had to know what they were talking about. He suspected that Rocket was interested too. So they followed along; being extremely careful not to get caught by the players. The path they were following had lots of turns and twists and it seemed to be getting further away from the main town as they went along. Eventually they followed the players underground and were surprised when they had reached what they assumed was their destination. There was a huge space here and it was filled with people- mostly former and current football stars to be precise. Not to mention that giant spherical structure. Sinedd had never seen anything like it.

He didn't know what he had expected but it hadn't been anything like this. He and Rocket made their way into the crowd; there were so many people there that they wouldn't be noticed. Besides they were footballers too; it was their right to be there (even if they didn't quite know what was going on.) There was a large screen and on it was Ryker's goalkeeper Kernor and Akamook of the Cyclops team- they seemed to be inside the Sphere. The game started and Kernor started with the ball; Akamook tried to get at it and Kernor just shoved him onto the ground with her massive weight in an act of blatant violence. Sinedd waited but the call of 'foul' wasn't called. In fact the crowd went wild. Sinedd smirked; this was his sort of game. The match continued and the more Sinedd saw of it, the more he liked it. It was pure football; without the pathetic rules that the League had introduced.

He glanced at Rocket and what he saw was not what he had expected. He had expected poor shy Rocket to be shocked and horrified. Instead he saw an expression of fascination on Rocket's face, he was watching the game intently- almost mesmerised. It wasn't merely the type of interest that a person has when they see a car crash and want to look away but can't. He had this expression of craving, of need, now that Sinedd looked closer he did see revulsion on Rocket's face- but it wasn't for the game- it was for himself. Sinedd's smirk widened into almost a grin, so Rocket was like him after all. With the right coaching he could easily lose that namby-pamby goody-goody exterior and become strong.

The match continued and Kernor was easily winning. She would be the one to beat Sinedd decided. He definitely wanted in. The game finished and the crowd went wild for Kernor's victory. Sinedd waited for the crowd to clear before advancing towards the controls where several people stood, backs turned, he assumed that they must be in charge...

"You!" he shouted across to them. They turned and he was surprised to find that they looked vaguely familiar to him. He considered them but couldn't place them for a moment. Suddenly the memory kicked in- it was those losers! What had they called themselves? The Red Lions or something...what were they doing running a place like this?

"Sinedd," one of them said, practically spitting his name- clearly they remembered him "what are you doing here?"

"Are you stupid? I'm interested in playing," he said, affecting his usual manner towards them.

"No. After you abandoned us? I don't think so Sinedd. The Red Tigers don't need you anymore; we have this nice little set up," another piped up.

"That isn't important. I'm going to play," he smiled at them threateningly.

"We said no. We control the Sphere and we don't need you. You are only a part of some second-rate team; we have all the top players."

Sinedd grabbed one of their collars and raised his fist as if to strike. Rocket who had just been standing and watching as if in a trance finally spoke "Sinedd! There are more of them; come on it's not worth it."

Sinedd considered for a moment. There were way more of them, even though they were weaklings, they could probably overpower him in a fight. Slowly he lowered his fist and dropped the Red Tiger contemptuously. He could find a way to play; he would think of something later.

He turned to Rocket "Come on, let's go." They both turned and left although the Sphere was still on both their minds all the way they walked home.

Back on the date; things were going a lot better. Things were going well; D'jok just knew that this was going to work. He really liked Tia; she looked so pretty today. Her different outfit was nice but that wasn't it. She just seemed to shine with goodness and D'jok felt like he was falling harder and harder. After they had eaten D'jok escorted Tia back home and to her room. As they said goodnight, D'jok suddenly felt this rush of confidence and he suddenly leaned forward and brushed his lips against Tia's.

**Next chapter soon. When I was writing this chapter I was thinking "Hmmmm I don't think that Aarch dying would really change when Bleylock decided to create the Sphere or make him decide to put it on Akillian?" but I wanted to include the Sphere so I hope you'll excuse me! Please review!**


	17. Chapter 17

A future that never happened chapter 17

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

**This chapter is a bit shorter than usual but I figured I should post it anyway.**

Tia stood in shock for a few seconds but she then realised that D'jok was kissing her and attempted to kiss back the best she could. After another few seconds and they broke the kiss. D'jok smiled at Tia and Tia smiled back.

"Well goodnight," she said exiting to her room. She leapt onto her bed in a frustrated fashion and buried her face in the pillow. She couldn't believe it. She'd known that she was going out with D'jok but she hadn't thought they would have gotten to the kissing stage yet. The kiss itself had been...okay. It wasn't really unpleasant or anything. And it wasn't like she exactly knew what these things should be like. All that 'electricity spreading throughout their bodies from a kiss' was clearly just a myth from the corny romance novels that Tia so despised. But her inner voice was reminding her that something was clearly missing. She liked D'jok. But she didn't really like D'jok. But she didn't love D'jok.

She pulled another pillow over her head. She did not want to think about it. They had a match coming up and that was way more important. And besides D'jok had given her shelter when she had no-where to go. He was a good boyfriend. And it would be awkward living with him if they broke up.

Meanwhile in the room next door D'jok was in a completely different mood. He was practically jumping on the furniture with jubilance. He'd kissed Tia! And she'd kissed back! He was feeling great! For a first kiss that had gone amazingly well. He was excited for a future with Tia. D'jok made himself sit down and calm down but he couldn't help but feel happy. The kiss had just confirmed to him everything he had already known; that Tia was the girl of his destiny. He really felt too full of beans to go to bed now so he was searching for something to do.

All of a sudden he knew what he should do; Micro-ice hadn't been happy with him recently so he should arrange to see him. That way he could spread the cheer to him (and brag about his relationship with Tia). He dialled Micro-ice's number and waited for him to pick up.

Micro-ice did saying "hello, who is this?"

"It's D'jok, don't hang up the phone! Just listen!"

"I'm listening."

"Maybe we haven't been hanging out that much recently; but it was hardly deliberate."

"That's not how it seems to me," Micro-ice said, stubbornly.

"Let me finish Micro-ice, I was wondering whether you want to hang out with me tomorrow night."

"Will Sinedd be there?"

"No. It can be just the two of us if you want. Or we could invite Ahito and Thran."

"Really? Cool, where do you want to go?" Micro-ice said, immediately getting over-excited.

"Don't mind, you choose," D'jok said shrugging to himself.

"You could just come round to my house, to eat and hang out."

"Yeah, straight after practice?"

"Yeah; like the old days when you came over after school!"

They talked some more happily before the conversation trailed off and they said goodnight. D'jok smiled to himself; that hadn't been hard to solve.

Soon after Sinedd and Rocket returned to D'jok's. They hadn't said anything to each other on the way back. There was nothing to say. The Sphere was casting a shadow over each of them. They managed to get ready and get into their separate mattresses without further saying anything. It wasn't even awkward.

Hours later Rocket rolled over to glance at Sinedd. He hadn't been able to sleep for these past hours; he just couldn't stop thinking about the Sphere. He knew he should just forget about it; to focus on the coming matches but he kept seeing that match over and over. In this case it seemed his photographic memory was working against him. From looking at Sinedd he would say that Sinedd was asleep. Not peacefully though, his brow was furrowed and he was flailing a little. Still, it was better than being stuck awake. He rolled over again, this time with his back to Sinedd and tried to get to sleep. Eventually he got to sleep but his dreams were filled with violence.

The next day after training....

D'jok had gone over to Micro-ice's house and they were having fun- it was like old times. D'jok had managed to tell Micro-ice all the details of his relationship and Micro-ice seemed happy for him (even though he was a little jealous that D'jok had a girlfriend and he didn't.) Still it was fun. They just talked, complained about Coach Zuriel, hung out. Normal friend stuff. Micro-ice was pleased that D'jok had made the effort and mostly he felt that everything was going to be fine now. However there was just this little doubt nibbling away at him; he hadn't forgotten that Sinedd and the others were still living with D'jok.

Meanwhile....

Rocket followed the complicated path- all the way back to the Sphere. He could still remember it exactly. He tried to talk himself out of it as he walked through the snow but he couldn't quite manage to stop. He knew that it was a bad idea. He wouldn't be welcome there; they had seen him with Sinedd. And even if he was welcome he shouldn't want to go back there anyway. Why should he? He wasn't that sort of person. He'd never hurt anyone in his life. He reassured himself that the reason he wanted to go was to see all the famous footballers in person again. But he knew that wasn't it. He didn't just want to watch. He wanted to participate. He'd come without Sinedd, they would never have allowed Sinedd back in there, besides he didn't have to spend all his time with Sinedd. Couldn't a guy spend some time walking on his own? When he got there it was as packed as before. Somehow he still couldn't believe that all these players would come all the way to Akillian every night for this. But then in some ways he could; after all he had come back too hadn't he? He just watched. He didn't make any effort to try and get involved in anyway; he tried his best not to draw attention to himself. He watched as Kernor destroyed yet another player. Then he took off as fast as he could; all the way back to D'jok's place. Lying awake again, that night, he couldn't help but be glad that he had gone back.

**I found the Tia and D'jok romance/kiss so hard to write in this chapter…so I hope it was okay to read. Please review! **


	18. Chapter 18

A future that never happened chapter 18

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fic.**

It was finally the day of the rematch with the Rykers. The day they had all been waiting for. Or the day they should have all be waiting for. Either way the day was there and they had to deal with it. They all sat on the shuttle, uneasy silence descending over the group, all mentally preparing mentally for the match to come. Rocket sat in a small corner of the shuttle, thinking. He was telling himself that they had been to the training; they had worked hard. Therefore they had a chance. At least that was what he was trying to think about. In reality, it was only in the back of his mind, the Sphere loomed menacingly in the foreground. This worried him, he knew he should be concentrating on nice, safe, normal football, it had always been his dream and now it seemed like it was of secondary importance.

Sinedd noticed the disturbance in Rocket despite the fact that Rocket thought he was keeping it all so hidden. He didn't know what was causing it but he could make a guess. He surveyed the rest of the team from where he was sitting (which was closer to Rocket than to the rest of the team but still not close) and he found himself feeling the unworthiness of all of them. Micro-ice looked completely vacant; he probably wouldn't even know an important match if it hit him in the face. And D'jok, the supposed football fanatic, got distracted by that girl easily enough though. Sinedd thought he looked extremely stupid sitting there with that grin on his face, holding her hand. The others were just plain mediocre. But Rocket was different; he had talent. And Sinedd didn't want the only good player (apart from himself of course) that his team had not be paying full attention. If the team failed then Sinedd could no longer play and he wanted to play. So that's why he decided to try and get Rocket back on track and focused on the match. It wasn't because he cared about Rocket or anything.

"Rocket!" Sinedd shouted, way too loudly, snapping Rocket immediately out of the world of his own thoughts.

"What!" he asked alarmed.

"Are you ready for the match?" he said, controlling his tone this time, he really hadn't meant for it to come out that loud before.

"Of course I am," Rocket automatically defended himself even he had just been thinking about the fact he wasn't really concentrating on the match.

"Well," Sinedd said and faltered, he wasn't convinced but he really wasn't sure what to say next "well, you just didn't look like it. We have to win."

"I know! Do you think I don't know?" Rocket exploded for no apparent reason. Sinedd was just getting on his nerves.

"I don't think you do! You have to stay on the ball," he sniggered a little at his own unintentional pun.

"Fine," Rocket said, filling his voice with a false apathy in order to end the conversation "although I don't see why it is any of your business anyway."

"Well it is. How you perform on the field affects all of us," he paused, Rocket didn't seem to be listening, so he tried a different approach "I care about how you play, I was just concerned."

Of course it was a total lie. He didn't care about Rocket one way or another, but Rocket seemed to be the kind of sucker who would fall for emotional rubbish like that. Normally Sinedd wouldn't say that sort of thing, no-one would believe him for one thing, but this time it fitted his purpose. Rocket looked suitably shamed and mumbled some words about how he was grateful and would try his best. He also looked more focused on the match which justified the whole thing to Sinedd. He'd do anything to advance his career; even if it meant letting Rocket think he was his friend.

A while later the shuttle landed and they were on Unadar. When they got there they received the usual unfriendly 'welcomes' from the Rykers and got a short rest. However it wasn't long before they were in the changing room and ready to get on the field.

"Remember everyone; you have to win this match!" Zuriel unnecessarily reminded them all, although the way he said it almost sounded like a threat. He then proceeded to give them stern encouragement and then it was time for them to step out on the field.

Unfortunately his words didn't seem to have any effect; the first half was an unmitigated disaster. They were all trying their bests but it seemed like distractions had got the best of them. Only Ahito, Micro-ice and Thran were playing normally and that wasn't enough. D'jok insisted on passing to Tia, even when it would have been wiser to pass to Sinedd. Rocket wasn't bringing everything together in the same way that he normally did. Tia did manage to score one goal but it was really nothing in comparison to the four that the Rykers managed to score.

Half time passed swiftly; they received a speech from Zuriel telling them to play properly. It seemed to do the trick. Miraculously after half time they managed to score 6 goals and the Rykers only scored another one. So they won 6-5. Not only that but Ahito and Thran got the breath. It was their first win. The celebration was tremendous; they had won against all odds.

They all hung out at D'jok's until late. Almost all, Rocket had slipped away sometime during the celebrations, he didn't even tell anyone he was going. The group didn't notice of course; Rocket never said much anyway. Sinedd had noticed though, he had seen him get up and leave; he had noticed that he hadn't come back yet. He smirked at the obliviousness of everyone around him. Yet again they had all proved their stupidity; they didn't notice anything. They probably wouldn't even notice if their heads were on fire.

Sinedd pretended to be asleep when Rocket came in; it was late- everyone had gone home a while ago. Rocket no doubt thought he was being sneaky. His tip-toeing around wasn't exactly quiet. Rocket under the covers, on his mattress on the floor, no doubt thinking he had succeeded in slipping in unnoticed.

Rocket did indeed think that he had he had fooled Sinedd. But really he didn't really care about that. He had been standing the crowd, just watching, if he was honest, just enjoying the violence. But something had changed. He'd been stopped from leaving at the end. One of those Red Tigers had blocked his exit.

"Come with me, we want to talk to you," he'd said and Rocket was really given no choice but to agree. He'd been taken to the rest of the Red Tigers; it seemed to face an inquisition.

"Aren't you Sinedd's friend?" they'd asked, sounding accusing.

"No," he said, and he wasn't sure whether it was true or not, he wasn't sure they'd accept that so he added "we are just teammates."

"Well then, how would you like to be next up in the Sphere, tomorrow night?"

"Why me?" he'd asked, taken completely aback, why would they want him?

"Well, you are relatively untested, it could be interesting," on of them had said, very unconvincingly.

They must have read the disbelief on his face and hastily added "okay, orders from above."

So he'd accepted. It was instinct. He'd wanted to. But now he had doubts. Sure, he'd got used to watching the violence, but was he ready to actually participate? There was no reason for him to do this; he was just starting his career. He'd never been violent; he'd always been a good boy- did his homework, did his the chores his father had set him- so why did he feel like this? He rolled over onto his stomach; there were no easy answers.

By the time the next evening had come around he still hadn't come up with any answers. Automatically almost, he left D'jok's and started walking to the Sphere, he could make a choice even if he didn't know why he was making it. He was so distracted he didn't even realise he was being followed.

The fact that he had been barred from going to the Sphere had kept him away so far; he knew when he was overpowered. But he wanted to confirm his firmly held suspicions about where Rocket had been going off to and he wanted to see it again for himself. He wanted to see Rocket's shocked yet fascinated face watching the violence. The thought of it amused him for some reason. Some reason was good enough for Sinedd, he wasn't like Rocket, he didn't need to analyse everything.

Rocket got there and was almost immediately ushered into the Sphere. It wasn't really his choice at all. The Sphere looked different once you were inside it; the whiteness made it seem almost sterile. Kernor stood at the other end looking just as menacing as she did on the football field. He hadn't done anything yet but already he felt like he had gone too far to back down. He'd have to accept himself like this now.

Sinedd couldn't believe it. Rocket was inside the Sphere. He'd enjoyed the idea of Rocket of being a spectator but he hadn't wanted him to actually play! Fury started to fill Sinedd, he should be in there! Not Rocket! He was the one who deserved it; he'd wanted to play from the start. Rocket had not even really wanted to go there. He was unworthy or at least not as worthy as Sinedd. If Sinedd couldn't go in the Sphere then Rocket shouldn't either. It wasn't fair. Sinedd wasn't going to leave though. He hoped to see Rocket defeated and then he would be sorry for trying to take what should be his. Rocket would lose; he had to lose.

But when Rocket exited the Sphere it was with Victory. The Sphere had a new Champion.

Sinedd turned and left before the new winner had a chance to see him. He would confront him at D'jok's- it was neutral territory.

He managed to get there only 20 minutes before Rocket had arrived; it gave him time to decide what he was going to say. Rocket had to quit Netherball, he just felt that somehow, but he didn't quite know why.

Rocket came in and saw Sinedd sitting there, waiting for something, waiting for him? He put on his best 'I've just been out for a casual walk' face. Inside he was feeling all these indescribable feelings but he made sure that his face was a picture of innocence.

"I know where you were," Sinedd started, bluntly.

"What are you talking about?"

"I know you went to the Sphere and I know that you beat Kernor. I was there."

"You followed me?" Rocket said, affronted.

"Well I had to; you weren't exactly going to say 'by the way I happen to going off the Netherball at night' were you?" Sinedd shot back, sarcastically.

"And why should I? It's not your business!" Rocket said, anger filtering into his voice.

Sinedd didn't say anything in return, he just glared.

"Just stay out of my business," Rocket threatened him.

"Don't go back there again."

"No. Give me one reason why I should do what you say?"

"It's not good for you," he said, knowing how false it sounded. Rocket would have figured out by now that Sinedd didn't care about anyone but himself.

"Don't give me that! Just because you can't play you think that..." Rocket was cut off by the door opening and Tia and D'jok walking through, clearly having just come back from a date. They immediately stopped arguing and just went about like they had never even been speaking to each other. It was easier than trying to explain.

Meanwhile...

Zuriel was watching the holo TV in his office, just passing the time, watching the news. He never expected what came on next.

"This is a special news item, coming live from the Akillian, the League has met and come to a decision regarding the Shadows' controversial motion to try and remove the bars on having players from other planets. And without further delay, I can tell you ladies and gentlemen, that the Shadows have won their case. That's right, dear viewers, the Shadows will now be able to recruit players from foreign planets again. We'll now interview one of the council members..."

Zuriel went pale. How could have not known that the decision was being taken today? How could they have let the Shadows have their way? Hadn't they seen what had happened last time? It seemed like Aarch's death meant nothing to them. He couldn't believe that Adium would let this happen, she was league president, she must have been able to do something. Shaking with anger he picked up the phone and dialled her number....

**That's it for this chapter. This chapter has been very Rocket and Sinedd heavy, which made it hard to write, Rocket is so difficult! I don't really like this chapter to be honest. Anyway, the good news is that I have actually made a plan for the next three chapters, so they should be easier to write. Please review! I'll try and get the next chapter out as soon as possible.**


	19. Chapter 19

A future that never happened chapter 19

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

"Artegor," Adium answered, pleasantly "what is it that I can do for you?"

"How could you let the Shadows get their way? You know what it did to Aarch!" he didn't have time or patience for small talk.

"It wasn't up to me, it was up to the board," Adium said, with a weary sigh.

"You are the League President; you have influence over the board," he wanted to get the bottom of this. He couldn't see how any right thinking people could possibly have made this decision.

"Whilst I do have some influence, I don't have nearly as much as the Shadows; they have resources that I don't have."

"Are you saying they bribed the board members?"

Adium sighed again "it's likely, they wouldn't leave this up to chance, their best players have always been human."

"They shouldn't be allowed to get away with it," Zuriel said, clenching his free hand into a fist.

"There's no way of proving anything. I'm sorry, Artegor, there's nothing I can do. Besides there really isn't any substantial evidence that it was the Smog that killed Aarch, not from a scientific perspective anyway."

"But you know that was what happened, you know!"

"Goodbye, Artegor," she said, hanging up. Zuriel slammed his fists onto the table in fury, knocking over several things in the process. He couldn't believe the greed of these people; he couldn't believe they would endanger more lives. It seemed that to them Aarch's death meant nothing. He stayed there, thinking, until it got so late that he inadvertently fell asleep. And his nightmares were filled with all the memories of the things that used to be.

The next day came bright and early; they all had to trudge off to practice. Practice was as usual except for the breath-focused activities for those that had it. It was after practice that things were unusual.

Sinedd swaggered out of practice, his mind not on anything that had happened in practice, his mind was preoccupied by the Sphere. Or Rocket playing in the Sphere. He was last to leave by a long shot. He hadn't wanted to have to speak to any of the others; he'd always hated D'jok and Micro-ice and now he had Rocket to add to the list. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he only managed to walk a few metres before he was suddenly grabbed from behind, a hand over his mouth so he couldn't say anything...

Meanwhile...back at D'jok's...

Rocket was getting restless. He had to wait hours before going back to the Sphere, impatience was growing with every minute and he felt like he would explode if he didn't work the tension off soon. He tapped his fingers on the side of the table, irritably, whilst watching the football. He used to be able to focus on a match so that everything else was blocked out; football used be his escape. But now, it wasn't nearly as satisfying, Netherball was the only thing that helped him now.

"Could you please stop tapping?" Micro-ice said, not sounding too serious. He'd come over to hang out with D'jok and naturally that translated as watching the football with D'jok, Tia and Rocket. Sinedd still wasn't back.

"Rocket, where's Sinedd?" Tia asked, during half time. Sinedd had been gone for quite a while now with no sign of reappearing.

"I don't know," Rocket shrugged, the question annoyed him, why did everyone always think that he knew everything about Sinedd? He could have let more annoyance into his voice were it not Tia who was asking. He couldn't really find it within himself to snap at her. Besides any anger he felt now could be used to his advantage in the Sphere. Only then did it cross his mind to wonder where Sinedd was.

Sinedd dumped his bag on the floor of his new room. His own room; no Rocket to take up his space here. And he had his own bed. He didn't have to hang around D'jok anymore. Overall this room was an improvement. A definite improvement. He'd not been prepared when he had been grabbed by behind but 'luckily' it was just the Coach of the Shadows (it wasn't really luck, it had been Sinedd's skill that had attracted the Coach in the first place). Sinedd had been sceptical of this Coach (he was naturally suspicious of adults) until he had offered him just what he needed.

He'd offered him a place on the Shadows' team; they hadn't wasted any time in looking for human players. And Sinedd was perfect, aggressive, and skilled with a ball; and he didn't have the breath- that would make the transition to using the Smog easier. And Sinedd had taken the offer; he had never wanted to be on 'D'jok's team' in the first place. And the Shadows were a real team; they were far greater than any team from Akillian would ever be. He would get the Smog and he would become the greatest player ever, for the entire Galaxy to see. Rocket could mould underground whilst playing Netherball for all he cared; Sinedd had something much better now. He had made the right choice in coming here.

Back at D'jok's...

Eventually the match was over and it was almost time for Netherball. Rocket moved towards the door, not expecting any one to even notice, let alone care.

"Rocket?" Tia's voice was softly curious. "Where are you going at this time?"

Rocket spun around quickly "just for a walk; maybe I'll find Sinedd." That was some justification to go out.

"Oh," Tia said, smiling "I hope that you find him then."

"Bye," Rocket said, hastily leaving to prevent further questioning. He didn't want to lose his nerve, Tia was a soothing presence and he needed to be aggravated. He couldn't show any weakness in the Sphere or they would eat him alive.

They didn't. Yet again he won in a sweeping victory; this one far better than the last. When he returned to D'jok's, Sinedd still wasn't there, that was even better- he could just go to bed without hearing Sinedd's whining about how he should be in the Sphere. So much better with just the roaring quiet of his own thoughts.

When he woke there was still no sign of Sinedd. It then occurred to him that perhaps he should be worried. His teammate was missing and hadn't come back. He shrugged off the worry easily; Sinedd was a former street kid, he would be able to survive on his own.

Later at practice...

"Where's Sinedd?" Zuriel asked, angrily, he wasn't in any mood to tolerate lateness now.

"We don't know, sir," D'jok said "he didn't come back last night. Probably up to no good." He added that last part with more than a little spite in his voice.

"Doesn't anyone know?" Zuriel was amazed that there wasn't more worry amongst the group; the old Akillian team would have been panic stricken if one of their members had suddenly disappeared. Everyone shook their heads, some looking almost gleeful (D'jok, Micro-ice), other's more downcast.

"Get on with your normal practice," he ordered "I'll try to locate Sinedd."

He went up to his office and wondered who he should call. He tried calling the hospital in case something had happened and he had ended up there. No luck. Now who did he call? Sinedd had no contact number; according to the others he was an orphan. In the end he just called missing persons and reported him missing. Hopefully if he didn't come back of his own accord then they would be able to find him. Zuriel couldn't work out what had happened; was it just that Sinedd had gone off somewhere, as the team seemed to suspect? Or was had something more sinister happened? Zuriel didn't know but he had a horrible feeling about the whole situation.

Later that evening and he had his answer. It was even worse than he had thought. He'd turned on the news to find a picture of Sinedd on his screen accompanied by Callie Mystic talking about a 'new recruit'. He inhaled sharply, hoping this could just be some sort of nightmare. But it was true. The Shadows had done it again, managed to start the corruption of yet another Akillian boy, it almost seemed like a curse.

"Why?" he said, not even knowing who he was addressing. How could Sinedd have been so stupid? He hated the Shadows for this, they clearly hadn't learnt anything, all they cared about was their victories. No matter who died in the process. He had to get Sinedd back; there was no other option.

"I told you!" D'jok shouted at the TV, when he saw the report, his voice half-triumphant, half-outraged. "I knew he would betray us"

"What must he be thinking?" Tia asked, softly, sounding less judgemental than D'jok. Rocket was silent. He'd never expected Sinedd to just leave. He didn't care anyway; it would mean more space for him. They'd need a new player though. Not that it really mattered; Netherball was more important than Galactik Football.

"Probably that he could use our team to get to where he wanted," D'jok answered, hands on hips. "I did try to tell you that he shouldn't be a part of the team. He's not any part of my destiny! We'll be better off without the traitor!"

Tia just nodded. She didn't know Sinedd, despite having lived in the same house for quite some time, D'jok could be right. It did leave the team in a mess though; where could they find a replacement at this short notice? They couldn't play with a clone; that would be like suicide!

Practice the next day was met with Zuriel's ominous announcement "as you all may know, Sinedd has quit the team and left for the Shadows. We will audition new players this afternoon to find a replacement. I'm going to try to get Sinedd back but if that fails we'll need to start training our replacement straight away. If Sinedd comes back then we will use our replacement as a reserve, do you all understand?"

There were murmurs of 'yes' and 'yes, coach'. Practice then continued as usual for the morning. Or as normal as it could be.

That afternoon the auditionees came along (Callie Mystic had announced the tryouts on the news). There were less than Zuriel would have hoped; it seemed despite everything that there was still a stigma attached to football. Still he ran the tests. Most players were good but nothing special but there was one standout. A girl named Mei, her attitude seemed a little off but she was by far the best player. The team could use a player like her. The only problem was that she seemed more suited to playing defence than attack; it was an attacker they were missing. It was clear that she must be selected for the team; the line up could be adjusted later. Besides, there was still a chance that Sinedd might return. Zuriel was doubtful about his chances but he had to try to save him. He owed it to the boy. He would give Mei the position and hope that he would be able to talk Sinedd around.

Mei stood, hands on hips, waiting for the verdict. Her mother was standing there, lecturing on about how Mei had to be the best. As if she didn't already know. She really wanted this, football was her passion, not the catalogue modelling she had been doing recently. She was sure that she would get this. The others hadn't been nearly as good as her. Only a blind man couldn't have seen that. Her mother looked at her watch for what seemed like the thousandth time "how long does it take to make a simple decision?"

"We can wait, Mother." Mei was impatient to know too but her Mother's complaining wasn't helping any.

She was relieved when 'Zuriel', or Artegor as she had heard he was really called, came out of his office to give them the results. This was it.

"I am pleased to announce that we are welcoming Mei as a member of our team," Zuriel said, equally for the benefit of the Akillians as well as for Mei.

Mei smiled, triumphantly and nodded, not letting herself show how pleased she was to have got in. Now she could finally have the career she deserved and get the recognition from the Galaxy that she needed. Her mother was prattling on about something in the background but Mei didn't hear it. She was concentrating on her future.

"Hi! I'm Micro-ice," Micro-ice enthusiastically greeted her, as she went to better acquaint herself with the team. "Welcome to the team, Mei!" He was practically drooling all over her.

"Thanks," she replied, keeping the tone bored. She didn't want to encourage any crush that he might be developing. She moved towards the rest of the group and greeted each by name, she had seen them lots of times on the TV and so knew them all by name. She was determined not to seem like 'the new girl' she was just as good as any of them.

"I want you to go through our usual practice in my absence," Zuriel said, addressing the team "teach Mei the ropes."

"Yes, Coach!" they all said, in a military like fashion.

"Where's he going?" Mei asked, after he had walked away, she wondered whether he always just left the team to just get on with it. She hoped not; that would hardly be very professional. She wanted to be with a team that would win, not one that would fall at the first hurdle.

"Oh, he's just going to see whether he can fetch Sinedd back, good luck to him with that; Sinedd's a traitor through and through," Micro-ice explained, desperate to be helpful. Mei felt annoyance shoot through her, why try to recruit her if they were trying to get their old player back? She hoped for her own sake that he wouldn't come back; he'd clearly not had the devotion to stick it out on the team. He'd had his chance; it was her turn now.

Meanwhile...

On a ship to the Shadows' planet, Zuriel planned what he was going to say, he couldn't imagine that Sinedd would give in easily. Part of the problem was that he didn't know what had motivated Sinedd to run off to the Shadows in the first place. Was it just greed or was it something greater? He couldn't expect a warm welcome from the Shadows either; he was their rival now. The Shadows were renowned for being ruthless and Zuriel had experience of this first hand. Still, he had to try; he couldn't not try to save Sinedd. His conscience would never allow him to just let it all happen again.

Eventually he got there and landed on the Shadows planet. He stepped out and started walking towards the training facility; he still knew the way by heart. He could hardly forget, no matter how much he might want to. He was just going to walk straight in there. He must have some rights as the former coach of Sinedd although he imagined that they were not going to be keen on his presence. They no doubt thought of him as a traitor, he had lived there for many years, and he had opposed their importing players. This would not be easy.

He walked through the doors and into the reception. He saw blankness and then comprehension as he gave his name at the desk. He then had to wait. Eventually their Coach came out, his face looking angry.

"Artegor," he said, wrinkling his nose, as it the name left a bitter taste "what can we do for you?" Had his tone been different, his words could have been mistaken for politeness. But here they were a clear threat.

"I want to speak to Sinedd," he stated, bluntly. The Shadows weren't ones for fancy speech or beating around the bush and neither was he.

"He's our player now," their coach, said laughing, cruelly "you should have held onto him better."

"I have a right to see him, you know it, I know it." He had to stand his ground; the Shadows respected strength. They stared at each other for a minute. It was a contest; a test of wills. Finally the Shadow looked away.

"Fine. You can speak to him for 10 minutes and that's it." He led Zuriel into Sinedd's room, leaving and shutting the door behind him.

"Sinedd," Zuriel said, unnecessarily making Sinedd aware of his presence.

"You," Sinedd was surprised to see him, "what are you doing here?"

"Sinedd, you have to come back with me," Zuriel cut straight to the chase. He only had ten minutes.

"I don't have to do anything, you aren't my coach anymore," Sinedd was in no mood to be told what to do. Especially not by his former coach. Already he felt like he had totally left that life behind and he didn't like being reminded of it.

"You have to leave the Shadows whilst you still can. Trust me, Sinedd, I know about these things. The Smog is dangerous."

In telling him to trust him, Zuriel had said the exact wrong thing. Sinedd didn't trust anyone, certainly not adults.

"I don't care," Sinedd simply stated. He didn't want to go through the pros and cons, he just wanted Zuriel to shut up and leave.

"Why did you come here? Why quit our team?" Zuriel asked, desperately reaching for anything he could use to convince Sinedd of the truth of the situation.

"The Shadows are stronger that that pathetic team of losers," Sinedd practically spat "only a fool wouldn't have taken the offer."

"I know how attractive the Shadows team is; I've been in your situation. But unlike me you have a team to go back to. You still have your place. You don't need the Shadows. Come back."

"No. I won't." He wasn't going back there. Not ever. He'd made his decision.

"Please, Sinedd, the Smog will kill you!"

"Well it didn't kill you, did it?"

"Because I got treated in time! I stopped using it! Think about it rationally," he said, shaking Sinedd by the shoulders in an attempt to shake some sense into him.

Sinedd didn't have time to reply before his new coach stepped into the room. "You've had your time, Artegor, now leave." He came over and put a firm hand onto Zuriel's shoulder and started to pull him away from Sinedd. Sinedd could have followed Zuriel out. But he didn't. He just sat on his bed not moving a muscle.

Although as Zuriel left he couldn't help but feel an emptiness inside of him. Part of him had wanted to go back.

Meanwhile at D'jok's....

Tia and D'jok sat on the sofa, holding hands, watching a random romantic comedy that was on television. Tia was so bored she could fall asleep. A sound brought her jolting back momentarily. Her head snapped around to see Rocket as he left. He always seemed to be leaving at this sort of time at night. She was wondered where it was that he went.

"What is it?" D'jok asked, noticing her puzzled expression and the complete lack of attention she was giving to the film.

"Nothing," she said and D'jok seemed convinced. He didn't give it any further thought and instead shrugged and pulled Tia into a kiss. This kiss was okay; they had got less awkward. It was comfortable to be with D'jok. But perhaps comfortable wasn't enough. Tia was starting to realise that she had no desire to be with D'jok. None. She knew she had to do something about it. She knew that it would hurt him less in the long run and that it was the right thing to do, both for him and for herself.

She had to break up with D'jok.

**Longer chapter than usual this time! And Mei's finally introduced, it's hard to start trying to capture the voice of a new character to the story, so I hope that I did it all right. I feel bad that Sinedd had to leave (I know that lots of you reviewers are Sinedd fans (as am I)) but he's still going to be in the fanfiction, don't worry! Oh and random note: today it is one year anniversary of when I first started one of my old fics 'The Aarch diaries' (I don't know whether any of you guys remember that), it feels like so long ago. Anyway, enough rambling from me, please review; I love hearing all of your views!**


	20. Chapter 20

A future that never happened chapter 20

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

Tia waited in nervous anticipation for the film to end. She wanted to get this over with and yet she wanted to prolong the time before the moment. She reminded herself that she had to do this. She had thought when she had accepted that she should give D'jok a chance and she had. She reminded herself that she couldn't force herself to feel something more for D'jok and she knew that she couldn't lead him on. Tia knew that D'jok would be upset, that was inevitable, but she knew it would be worse if she just left it. She took a deep breath as the film ended. D'jok grabbed the remote and switched the TV off. Tia knew that this had to be it.

"D'jok," she said, her voice slightly wobbly "I have to say something." She paused to look at D'jok and then to look down. He looked so concerned.

"What is it? Are you okay?" he said, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," she started, she had started and now she had to continue "I can't see you anymore."

Tia didn't want to look at his face but her eyes were drawn there. He was wearing this expression of complete shock. She looked away, feeling guilty.

"What are you talking about?" D'jok said. He laughed a little hysterically. He must have misheard; this wouldn't happen to him.

"I consider you a friend but only a friend. I'm sorry, I just don't feel that way about you," she said, trying to stay strong.

"I...why?" D'jok asked, not even knowing what he wanted to say. He had thought that Tia had really liked him. He just couldn't comprehend this.

"I don't know. You are a really great guy; I guess it just wasn't meant to be."

D'jok was speechless. It seemed that destiny was working against him. He had been so sure that things were going well between him and Tia.

"Are you okay?" Tia moved over to him with concern. She still cared about him as a friend and teammate. She had never wanted to hurt him.

"Can you just leave me alone for a little while, okay?" he almost shouted, sloping off to his room, leaving Tia feeling guilty. She hoped that he would be okay. She figured that he would need a little alone time to get over it.

D'jok came out of his room a few hours later having spent that time on his bed feeling upset and stupid. He had totally fallen for that act of Tia's. He couldn't believe it wasn't real.

He walked into the kitchen, intending just to get some food and go but he stopped when he saw Tia picking up some stuff on from the living room and stuffing it into her bag.

"Tia, what are you doing?" he asked, knowing full well that she was packing. He just didn't know why she was packing.

"I just feel that I shouldn't stay here anymore," she hung her head a little "thank you for having me here all this time. I'll repay you some day."

"You're leaving?"

"I think it's best," Tia said, quietly. She loved this place, it had become a home, but it would be too awkward to stay. Not to mention the fact she couldn't further burden them. Not when she had enough money from her new salary to pay for herself. She liked the idea of being self reliant even though it scared her a little.

"You don't need to repay me," D'jok's voice was cold, masking the pain that he felt "I'm going back to my room now."

"Okay...." Tia trailed off. She didn't know why she had expected him to be okay so suddenly. He was clearly hurt.

She continued to pack and she wondered where she'd find to live. But she'd find somewhere. She was sure of it.

She had just finished packing her stuff and was going to go to bed (her last night living at D'jok's) when the door creaked open and Rocket appeared. She was surprised. With all that was happening she had forgotten that he hadn't yet returned from another one of his mysterious walks.

Rocket was also surprised to see Tia. He never expected to encounter anyone when coming back from Netherball. It had been really good that night as well; he felt he's played even better than usual. Played harder and more violently.

"Had a nice walk?" To Rocket it sounded like an accusation and he was about to kick off before realising that it could have just been an innocent comment. There was no need to react as if he were guilty of something.

"Fine. What are you doing?" he asked, finally noticing the bag that Tia was holding.

"I'm moving out," she paused and decided she should probably disclose her reason "I broke up with D'jok."

"Sorry," he said flatly, he couldn't make himself feel too sorry for D'jok. He hadn't deserved a girl like Tia in the first place.

"It's okay. I'm going to bed now; goodnight." She turned away and sleepily sloped back to her room.

"Goodnight," Rocket said, quietly to her retreating back. He could feel the effects of the Sphere wearing off despite his desperation to cling to the feeling.

Suddenly a thought hit him. Sinedd had gone and Tia was going. It would be just him and D'jok on their own. Not a situation he particularly wanted to be in. He should probably move out too. He resolved to pack his stuff in the morning and move then. He hoped he could find somewhere situated near the Sphere; that way he wouldn't have to walk so far between 'matches'. But for then he just got onto his mattress on the floor and got some rest. He would need it.

D'jok came out of his room to see Rocket packing. Now there was a sight he hadn't expected.

"Rocket?"

Rocket looked up. "Thank you for having me to stay," his voice was emotionless and flat "but I'm moving out."

"Why?" D'jok asked. It wasn't that Rocket was his best friend or anything but he still didn't see why he had to go.

"I've relied on your generosity for too long." Rocket didn't mean it and so it sounded fake and rehearsed.

"It's fine, did Tia tell you she was moving out?"

"Yeah, sorry about the break-up, that must have been hard." Rocket knew he was lying and he didn't care.

"It's okay," D'jok said, sounding entirely depressed. Not only had Tia dumped him but she was leaving and now Rocket was too.

"I'll be ready soon," Rocket stated, simply.

Tia emerged out of her room with her bag completely packed. They had a rare morning off so she had time to go and look for somewhere to live.

"Thank you for everything D'jok," she said, sincerely "and thank your mother for me as well."

"Okay." D'jok's answer was curt and sullen.

"Bye D'jok," she then glanced to Rocket "bye Rocket." She waved to them, sadly, as she walked out of D'jok's door. An hour later and she had booked herself into a nice, but not too expensive, hotel. She had enough money not to have to go back to the motel at least. She flopped on the bed; she felt emotionally exhausted. Being in the hotel room was depressing. It wasn't that it wasn't nice, it was, but it wasn't the same as living with your friends. She knew it was going to be awkward with D'jok for a while and this worried her. She was on a team with him and so they needed to get along. Not only that but she still wanted to be friendly with him. She sighed; she still had a couple of hours to kill before practice so she reached for the remote and switched on the TV.

Meanwhile, Rocket had secured a room at an entirely different hotel. It was near the Sphere and that was all that mattered to him. It felt to be close the Sphere; it increased his excitement for the matches. He also decided to watch some TV in the time he had. If he recalled rightly there was a match on.

Shadows vs. Pirates.

The entire team was watching the match, in their separate accommodations, but all the same they were all watching.

It was weird to see Sinedd in the Shadows uniform and yet normal. The colours seemed much more natural to Sinedd than the blue and white of the Akillian uniform. But that wasn't the most interesting part. It was the match itself.

Of course, the Shadows were easily dominating the Pirates on the field, the Pirates were fluxless and the Shadows had one of the most powerful fluxes in the galaxy. The a Shadow midfielder gained possession of the ball and swiftly passed to Sinedd.

Sinedd easily caught it with his foot. He then disappeared leaving behind a trail of black smoke. He reappeared above goal and shot. He scored.

Zuriel put he head in his hands at the sight of it. Sinedd had the Smog. He had got it fast which made him worry even more for Sinedd's health. Sinedd didn't seem to be suffering from any ill effects but then again neither had he or Aarch when they first got the Smog. He turned the TV off. He knew how the match would end and he didn't want to see anymore of the match. It brought back too many memories.

Later on at practice...

"Alright everybody," Zuriel said, completely oblivious to the tensions that were running through the group "we're going to practice as a team."

He had been watching the group for half an hour and it was clear that things were not right. There was something weird going on with Tia, D'jok and Rocket, they usually worked well together but today the balance seemed off. Rocket seemed to be playing much more selfishly; he seemed almost to be playing like Sinedd. And D'jok was particularly off; he kept missing his shots. He didn't know what was going on with the group that was making them play like this and he didn't care; they should sort out their personal problems off the pitch. A problem that was more solid was the fact that their newest recruit Mei just wasn't a natural attacker. Then he got a brilliant idea. He could switch the positions of Micro-ice and Mei. Mei didn't seem like a striker and Micro-ice clearly wasn't great on defence.

"Mei, Micro-ice," he shouted, calling the practice to a momentary halt "switch positions. Micro-ice move up to attack. Mei go down to defence."

"But Coach!" Mei exclaimed, hands on hips.

"Just do it," Zuriel said, holding firm.

Mei walked down the pitch, everything in her walk showing her anger. As she passed Micro-ice she made sure to look away. It was so unfair; Mei didn't understand why she had been swapped in favour of some little runt. The way he was always staring at her, practically drooling, made Mei want to throw up. Her mother would not be happy with her being on defence. She could almost hear the lecture now. She would be better as an attacker; she would make the Coach see it her way. She would be an attacker; there was no way she would let her potential rot in the defence section.

"Remember, our next match is against the Shadows, so we have to train hard." Zuriel's statement snapped everyone back into practice, even Ahito who had been sleeping all the way through the 'break'. Although the practice continued, it was far from smooth...

The practice went like a blur for Rocket. He just passed the time until he could go back to the Sphere.

In the Sphere, playing Stevens, he found even more satisfaction in beating his opponent than usual. Little did he know that, somewhere he was being watched by General Bleylock, his flux being harvested for Bleylock's plans...

**That's it for now! Hopefully the next chapter will be fairly soon; please review!**


	21. Chapter 21

A future that never happened chapter 21

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

The energy on the shuttle on the way to the Shadows planet was nervous, there was nothing new in that, but it was different in some manner. It could have been that they were facing off against Sinedd, a former teammate of theirs. It could also have had something to do with the fact that the teams last few practices had been really off. Either way, there was something uncomfortable in the atmosphere going over to the Shadows planet.

Zuriel was also less than happy. He didn't want to return to the Shadows planet, it had been his home for years but now the thought of going there made him feel physically sick. He didn't want to have to watch Sinedd using the Smog; it brought back far to many memories. Sinedd was like him, anti-social and ambitious, he wished there could have been something he could have said to try and convince him to come back. He knew he should be thinking about the match from a coach's perspective but memories kept getting in the way. The last Shadows vs. Akillians match had ended in a planetary ice-age and he couldn't see this match ending any better.

They arrived and after a short speech from Zuriel they were out on the field and ready to play. The Shadows did their intimidating dance (it was weird to see Sinedd dancing) and the match was underway.

The match didn't start well, almost immediately the Shadows gained control of the ball. From that point on, things got worse, the Shadows scored 2 goals in the first half; the Akillians scored 0. With the way that they had been playing, it should have been worse. The whole team was a shambles. It was really thanks to Ahito that the Shadows hadn't scored more often. Rocket was causing problems, hogging the ball, and acting like 'a one man team' – an assessment more normally applied to Sinedd. Mei wasn't helping by acting like a striker when she was supposed to be on defence. D'jok, Micro-ice and Tia weren't playing their best either. At half-time, Zuriel gave another, more angry, speech. They went back on the pitch even more half-hearted than they had been. It would have taken a miracle to save them and they didn't get a miracle. The match ended and the score was 4-1 to the Shadows.

No-one was particularly happy with this outcome but Zuriel was more disturbed than most. Sinedd's use of the smog had quickly become powerful and he had sworn he had seen him coughing a couple of times. The smog seemed to be taking effect fast and this was exceptionally worrying. Back when it had been him and Aarch on the Shadows, the smog had affected Aarch more swiftly than it had done him, it did not bode well for Sinedd.

Sinedd's head was clear of such thoughts. He was celebrating his win, his triumph over his former team. Even Rocket's attempts to take control had only yielded one goal for the Akillians. He knew he had made the right choice joining the Shadows, they had proved that day that they were a superior team, and he had proved himself superior to Rocket and D'jok and all those other rubbish players. He coughed. To his mind it was just a cough, not a sign of Zuriel's stupid 'smog poisoning', besides he could take it; he'd do anything to win.

Back on Akillian, later on...

Rocket walked out of his hotel, hands in pockets, his impatience clear. It was the usual time and if possible, he was even more anxious to get back to Netherball. He walked fast, thinking of their defeat earlier that day. Galactik football didn't mean much in comparison to Netherball but he would still rather not lose. That's why he needed the victory tonight. He couldn't help but feel today's loss wasn't his fault anyway; it was the fault of those teammates of his. He would have been better off alone on that pitch.

"Rocket," he heard someone calling his name from behind, it was a familiar voice but he couldn't place it until he turned around.

Tia was jogging towards him, her breath turning into steam in the snow. He was surprised to see her, it put him in some weird halfway state, he couldn't be Netherball champion around her- she wasn't a part of that world.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked, unaware that he probably sounded a little rude.

"Just out for a walk, thinking, how about you?"

"Me too," he tried his hardest to sound sincere.

There was an awkward silence in which Rocket wanted to start to walk away, he didn't want to miss Netherball, but even in the state that he was in he knew that was impolite.

"Why did you break up with D'jok?" He hadn't intended to say it but it just slipped out under the pressure of the silence.

Tia's eyes widened in surprise, she hadn't expected that question, she didn't particularly want to answer it either. Nevertheless, she sighed and made an attempt to explain herself.

"It just didn't feel right. There's no point being in a relationship for the sake of it." Tia wasn't exactly sure why Rocket was questioning her about it, he didn't seem particularly close to D'jok and he had never been interested in their relationship before.

"I see." Rocket's response was short because he couldn't really think of anything else to say. He wanted this conversation to end. He was the King of the Sphere so they probably couldn't start without him but his sense of urgency came from somewhere else entirely. He wanted to get some release.

"I'm going to go now, bye," he said, stiltedly, continuing down the path to Netherball, leaving Tia behind.

Tia was confused by Rocket's strange behaviour. She'd known him to be shy but never this strange and jumpy. He'd seemed desperate to get away. She didn't know whether he just wanted to get away from her or whether he had elsewhere to be. Dimly, she remembered Rocket going on several late night walks back when they had both lived at D'jok's. Now that she came to think of it, it was sort of suspicious. She didn't know him well but it had seemed that there had been a change in his personality recently. The first explanation that sprung to mind was drugs even though the idea was a little ridiculous. Tia had been stood there for quite a while before deciding what she was going to do. She would follow Rocket, he was long gone, but she could follow his footprints in the snow. It might turn out to be nothing or it could be dangerous, but Tia was determined to find out what was going on. If it was something bad, then she couldn't just sit back and let it happen. She had to do something.

Rocket was unaware that Tia was following him. He was only thinking of Netherball. When he got there, he entered the Sphere to find his opponent waiting for him. Fulmugus of the Shadows stood there, silently, more serious than his previous opponents. Rocket was glad he was here; it would prove that he was better than any Shadows player.

Tia gasped as she entered the underground area that housed the Sphere. Footballers were everywhere, it seemed like sort of club. They were cheering for something and there was something dangerous and aggressive in the air. After a minute she turned her attention away from all the players and noticed the giant sphere and the video screens that everyone was watching. It seemed that Rocket was playing some sort of one-on-one game with the Captain of the Shadows.

Rocket slammed into the side of Fulmugus and scored his third goal. So far the score was 3-1, he was easily beating the Shadows captain. For all that the Shadows were aggressive; they were skinny and no where near as strong as Rocket was.

Tia was surprised by the foul from Rocket. She hadn't thought that he was that sort of person; he'd never seemed this aggressive before. The crowd cheered. No-one cried 'foul'; everyone seemed to be revelling in the violence of it. As the match continued, it became obvious to Tia that something needed to be done. This sport seemed to be corrupting Rocket and everyone else it came into contact with. She didn't stay to watch the end of the match, she didn't want Rocket to see her, and it was too painful to continue to watch. If she had stayed she would have seen that Rocket had won 4-1. A sweeping victory for him; one erased the defeat that had happened previously that day.

Tia knocked on Zuriel's office door. She knew it was late but this was an emergency. She didn't know whether he would still be there but there was a light from inside so she figured he must have been working late. Zuriel came to the door, not knowing who would visit at that hour.

"Tia, what can I do for you?" he asked, upon seeing Tia standing outside his door, a worried expression on her face.

"It's Rocket, sir, he's mixed up in something bad."

"Come in," he opened the door wider and Tia walked in.

Meanwhile at D'jok's....

"I can't believe she dumped me, I thought she really liked me," D'jok said, resting his chin on his knees.

"At least you had a girlfriend," Micro-ice complained "Mei wouldn't even give me a chance."

"Mei's not worth your time, man, she seems shallow and she still hasn't let go of wanting to be a striker. Tia on the other hand, she's a great player, and a nice girl," he sunk into depression again "I feel like such an idiot."

"You're not the idiot, D'jok; she is for letting you go." Micro-ice patted D'jok on the shoulder, to reassure him.

"Thanks, Micro-ice, but I can't help but feel like destiny betrayed me."

"D'jok, not everything is down to destiny," Micro-ice paused "do you really think I should do nothing about Mei. I'm sure she's a lovely girl; you just don't know her."

D'jok sighed and Micro-ice sighed. It was going to be a long night for the two of them.

Rocket was awoken with a knock on his hotel door, fairly early, the next morning. Granted he would have to get up for practice soon anyway but he was still annoyed. Who would be coming round at this hour? He opened the door to find Coach Zuriel standing there.

"Coach?"

"Rocket, can I come in?" Zuriel needed to talk to Rocket before they went to practice.

"Sure, Coach, come on in," he open the door wider.

"I know about Netherball," Zuriel cut straight to the chase as soon as the door was closed.

Rocket didn't say anything so Zuriel took that as invitation to continue.

"You have to quit Netherball."

**That's it for now, sorry the chapter took a little while to come out, I have quite a bit of work for 6th form. I'll try to get the next chapter out soon though. If I don't get the next chapter out before then, I hope that you guys have a nice Christmas!**


	22. Chapter 22

A future that never happened chapter 22

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

Rocket trudged to practice. He hadn't enjoyed that lecture from Zuriel. He couldn't believe he had been caught. A small part of him felt ashamed but his overwhelming feeling was that of outrage. He didn't see why he should do what Zuriel said; he had no right to dictate what he did or didn't do. Netherball felt too good to give up.

When he got there the entire team spun round to look at him accusingly. It seemed that they knew and they didn't look happy about it.

"Alright everyone, don't stand around, start practicing," Zuriel commanded them, before a fight could break out. They had a return match against the Shadows and they needed to win that, therefore training is needed.

Zuriel was troubled, when he had spoken to Rocket, it had seemed that he had agreed to give up Netherball. Somehow his words seemed to lack real emotion though, he Zuriel was pretty sure that Rocket wasn't going to stick to his word. He didn't feel as if anything had gone in, he hadn't managed to help Sinedd; he had to be more effective this time. He felt like he had a duty to help Rocket, not just because he was a part of the team, but because he was Aarch's nephew. He wondered whether Norata would be able to get through to him better. Perhaps he could arrange a meeting, it would be difficult, he knew how stubborn Norata was.

As Zuriel watched the team, he realised that the main problem was a lack of unity, perhaps they didn't spend enough time with each other. He remembered that back when he had been a footballer that he had lived with his teammates in dorms; it was normal practice for teams to all live together. If he found somewhere for the Akillian's to live then he would be able to monitor them more closely and he would be able to stop Rocket leaving. It could solve the other problems within the team. Zuriel felt that he had to do this now. Rocket needed to be kept from Netherball at all costs; pursuing a path of violence never ended well, he knew that from personal experience.

"I have to run an errand," he announced "carry on practicing; I'll be back shortly." With that he walked off to go to his office not even suspecting the chaos that would follow.

Almost as soon as Zuriel had left all semblances of a practice broke down and all eyes were on Rocket.

"What did you think you were doing? Netherball is dangerous and violent and you have no excuse for it." D'jok wasted no time in starting his verbal assault. He didn't know why he was so angry with Rocket, of course he knew that what Rocket did was wrong, but he felt almost personally affronted by the whole thing. Perhaps it was the fact that Rocket had been staying in his house all that time, living that double life.

"That's none of your business." Rocket's voice was flat and lifeless; he didn't really feel like any of this was happening.

"It's everyone's business, we're a team," Micro-ice sprung to side with D'jok.

"How did he find out anyway?" Rocket asked, feeling almost complete detachment. From his perspective his Netherball career was just beginning, Zuriel finding out hadn't given him any closure, he was planning on going back; he didn't care whether anyone else approved or not.

"I don't know," D'jok answered frustrated with Rocket's lack of caring.

"I told him." Tia's voice was quiet as she stepped forward, looking more concerned than angry. Rocket opened his mouth momentarily and then shut it again.

"I followed you, last night, and then I told Zuriel. I thought it was best."

Rocket clenched his jaw before replying. "I don't care what you or anyone thinks is best." With that statement he stormed out of practice, not even sure whether he intended to ever come back.

"What's his deal?" Mei asked, hands on hips. No-one attempted to answer her and they continued with their half hearted attempts at training. At this rate, they were never going to beat the Shadows.

Zuriel came back about half an hour later, successful in his hunt for team accommodation but little suspecting the pathetic excuse for a team practice that he found when he arrived back.

"Where's Rocket?"

"He just ran off, coach," Micro-ice volunteered.

"I trusted you to practice and this is what happens. Why did he leave?"

There was some mumblings before D'jok finally spoke up. "We just mentioned Netherball and he went ballistic."

"I will say this once and once only; I am dealing with the Netherball situation, I would appreciate it if none of you got involved. Do you understand me?"

There were more mumbles in agreement. D'jok's crossed arms and angry face didn't exactly reassure Zuriel that they weren't going to take this any further.

"Now that this matter has been dealt with, I can move onto the good news, I have secured some team accommodation. I'll give you the directions and after practice is finished I expect you to pack your things and move in there tonight." It was short notice but the Shadows match was less than a week away and so this could be imperative to team cohesion.

At the announcement there were some groans and complaints but no-one had to energy to really argue. Soon the practice was over and everyone went to pack up their stuff and leave their respective homes. Now all Zuriel had to do was find Rocket and tell him where they were going to.

As luck would have it, Rocket hadn't run off to anywhere particularly obscure, he had gone back to his hotel room. Of course Rocket had argued and resisted it but Zuriel had been forceful enough that he had eventually packed up his stuff and was escorted by Zuriel to his new 'home.'

Rocket threw his bag onto the floor of his new room. It was a room intended for two people, as marked by the fact that it contained two single beds and yet he was the person occupying. Zuriel had told him that he would be alone for the moment but that he should remember that there could be someone moving in there with him in the future. Rocket was pretty sure that he had been referring to Sinedd coming back, which was laughable, because in his opinion Sinedd wasn't going to come back. Sinedd had found success with the Shadows, why would he give that up? Rocket slumped on the bed closest to the door, unsure of what to do; it was only about 6 o'clock in the evening. Normally he would be going over his Netherball strategy in his head, planning and waiting, but now he knew he couldn't go back. It was hard for him to believe and a part of him was telling him that he would still be able to go back to play. Logically, he knew he wouldn't be able to sneak out, Zuriel had made it clear that his whereabouts would be monitored very closely and no-one could get in or out of the training facility without security noticing. He tapped his fingers on the table beside his bed; what was he supposed to do now?

Meanwhile Zuriel had taken it upon himself to go and talk to Norata. As far as he could tell, Norata and Rocket hadn't spoken to each other since Rocket had decided to become a professional footballer, such a rift between him and his father was bound to be a source of tension for Rocket. Zuriel's hopes for convincing Norata to try and reconcile with his son weren't high; from what he had heard, Norata wasn't exactly the biggest football fan. Nevertheless, he was standing on Norata's doorstep, willing to give it a try. He stretched out his hand to ring the doorbell.

It took a little while for Norata to come to the door and when he did he didn't exactly seem welcoming.

"Artegor," he said, in a sour voice "what are you doing here."

"I want to speak to you about your son."

"My son? Any son of mine wouldn't have run off to play football despite knowing that it never leads to anything good."

"Rocket is your son and he needs your help. Can I come in?"

"Come in, then, but I don't have all day." Norata turned and walked further in, leaving Zuriel to follow him. They went into Norata's living room and sat in chairs that faced opposite to each other.

"Your son has been involved in a dangerous sport called Netherball; many of the participants have been injured."

"Sounds no different from football," Norata noted, bitterly, glancing at his mechanical leg.

"It is different. They play one on one matches, from what I have heard, the fouls are considered the best part by those that watch."

"And how exactly is Rocket involved?"

"He'd been playing for some time; I believe they called him 'King of the Sphere.' He's changed Norata, I don't know him well, but even I can see that."

"Why should this concern me? He left me and went directly against my advice. I don't imagine he would have got involved in Netherball if he hadn't joined your ridiculous team," Norata ranted, "why did you come back here? Everyone thought you were dead and now you reappear, meddling in my matters, what gives you the right? You know what happened to this planet and you know what happened to Aarch; shouldn't that be proof enough that football is a bad idea. It only brings misery."

"The fact that the ice-age started in the middle of a football match was a mere coincidence. You know that it was Smog that killed Aarch; it wasn't football. Think of what Aarch would have wanted, he would have wanted this team, he would have wanted his nephew to follow in his footsteps."

"Aarch died; do you really want Rocket to emulate that?" Norata clearly wasn't going to budge on the issue.

"I'll go but think about what I said," Zuriel said, standing up and starting to leave.

"Artegor!" Norata shouted, suddenly, feeling that he had to at least make one last comment.

Zuriel turned around, to listen to what he had to say (it was strange that he still automatically answered whenever someone called him Artegor).

"Don't you think that the league should now about this Netherball?" The point that Norata had brought up hadn't even crossed Zuriel's mind. He left without answering.

The league was still somewhat of a sore spot for Zuriel; he felt utterly betrayed by their decision allowing the Shadows to corrupt yet another young boy from Akillian. But in some ways Norata was right, the League could possibly put a stop to it, Rocket wasn't the only person who was playing after all; it included players from practically every team. He didn't want to speak to Adium but he was beginning to feel like he had to.

He wrestled with his conscience for a while before deciding that he would have to inform the League, much as he was still angry with Adium for letting the Shadows have their way, he knew that it was a disservice to Aarch's memory not to help prevent more violence being done. He went to Adium's office, knowing that she would be working late, and knocked on the door.

"Artegor, what is it?" Adium asked. She was surprised to see him; he wasn't usually one to forget a grudge.

"There's something going on, there's this sport, it's called Netherball." Adium then invited him in and he explained it all to her.

20 minutes later...

"That's all very interesting; I certainly think that the league should investigate this further, and what of Rocket? What effect has this had on him?"

"He's more aggressive, he's not been acting like himself at all, it seems to act in a similar fashion to the Smog."

Adium winced internally at the mention of Smog, the tone in his voice as he had said the word was enough to tell her that he was still resentful; he blamed her entirely.

"Why not send him to the councillor we are using with Sinedd? It could help him work through his aggression."

Zuriel raised his eyebrows in surprise. He hadn't been aware of Sinedd receiving any counselling. "What councillor?"

"An expert in the field of research into the Smog and fluxes in general. You didn't seriously think that we were just going to let Sinedd join the Shadows and then just leave him. He's being monitored very closely. Just one of the conditions I insisted upon when the board allowed the Shadows to import players."

"I think Rocket might benefit from that, I would like you to refer me to this councillor." He felt a little guilty for resenting Adium, perhaps she had cared more than he had given her credit for. He still didn't agree with the board's decision though. Adium wrote down the details and handed them to him.

"The Board will get back to you after they have made a decision concerning this Netherball. Goodbye, Artegor."

Meanwhile, somewhere entirely different...

Bleylock slammed his fist onto the table. He wanted Rocket in that Sphere, giving him flux. That incompetent gang that he had hired to bring in players had failed him spectacularly. He didn't know quite what it was but Rocket gave a larger batch than most other players.

"Sir, I think I have some news that might please you," Baldwin said, coming up beside Bleylock, papers in hand.

"I hope you are not wasting my time, Baldwin, I am in no mood."

"Well we have enough flux to start work on the flux devices but that wasn't what I wanted to tell you. There's something weird in the sample. We've analysed it and it seems that Rocket's flux contains some weird element. Now I can't be certain but I think it might be...the metaflux." Baldwin handed Bleylock some of his stack of papers, filled with graphs and technical jargon.

"That is good news, Baldwin. We need to know for sure. Find Professor Clamp immediately and bring him here; I believe he still works for Technoid."

"Yes, general," Baldwin said, leaving.

"This is excellent," Bleylock said, speaking to himself "if Rocket has the metaflux then chances are all the little Akillians have it. I'd be the most powerful man in the galaxy if I had the metaflux." He smiled at the thought.

**That's it for the moment. I really didn't enjoy writing this chapter, I'm not entirely sure why but it was difficult going. I hope it came out okay. Hope you guys had a great Christmas and that you all have a great new year!**


	23. Chapter 23

A future that never happened chapter 23

**Disclaimer: ****I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

Rocket sighed as he got up out the chair after his first session of counselling. It had been maddening, humbling and embarrassing in almost equal measures. That Netherball feeling was beginning to wear off and he was beginning to feel like his old self again, unfortunately for him, this meant he was starting to feel guilty about what he had done. He knew that his teammates hadn't forgiven him yet; every time he went to practice they all stared at him in that accusing manner that made him desperately want to escape.

He was so wrapped up in his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed Sinedd sitting, slumped in a chair in the waiting room.

"Rocket, I didn't think I'd see you here. What's the matter; coach think you're insane?" Sinedd's voice was venomous as he spoke. The expression on his face clearly showed that he was still furious with Rocket.

"Sinedd, always a pleasure," Rocket replied, sarcastically, he still had some of that Netherball spirit.

"It'll be a pleasure when the Shadow beat your pathetic team in the next match."

"Why are you here anyway?" Rocket couldn't imagine that Sinedd had volunteered himself up for counselling.

"It's part of the terms for my transfer to the Shadows." It wasn't something Sinedd was happy with, he didn't enjoy always being asked such invasive questions, it was worth it though. The Shadows were worth it.

"Oh right," Rocket said, shortly. The retort that he'd been planning died on his brain. He didn't really feel angry with Sinedd anymore; he felt tired of arguing. "I'll see you around then." He turned and exited the room before Sinedd could think of any thing to say.

He walked slowly back to the team living accommodation. They had been living there for a few days and he still wasn't used to it yet. Mostly because he didn't really feel like a part of the team. It felt like it was the home of the team plus Rocket; he didn't belong with them anymore.

He got into his room to find his father waiting for him, sitting on the spare bed.

"Dad, what are you doing here?" He instinctively called him 'Dad' despite the fact that his father had practically disowned him. If he hadn't of kicked him out he would never have gone with Sinedd and discovered the Sphere. This was all his fault.

"Your coach tells me that you have been involved in a very dangerous sport. I was worried about you."

"So worried that you threw me out of the house, left me to fend for myself," Rocket said, bitterly.

"I may have been too hasty, son, but football has taken everything away from me. I was only trying to do what was best."

"Well you didn't. You drove me to Netherball."

"I didn't mean to. Rocket, I want to start again, I want to be better," Norata said, walking over to put his arm on his son's shoulder.

Rocket's rage visibly deflated a little. "Okay, Dad, okay." For the first time in years, Norata initiated a hug with Rocket, and Rocket allowed himself to be hugged.

A little while after his father left, Rocket heard a small, hesitant knock at the door. He opened it to find Tia standing there, her hands behind her back, chewing her lip nervously.

"Mind if I come in?" she asked. He gestured to her that she could come in and she entered his room.

"Listen, Rocket, I hope you aren't still angry with me for telling Zuriel. It wasn't good for you, can't you see that?"

Rocket took a deep breath, letting some calm wash over him before replying. "I'm not angry. You were right; Netherball changed me."

Tia smiled at him. "I'm glad you're getting back to normal; we need you to win the next match."

Rocket actually managed to smile back a little bit. They carried on the conversation quite naturally, Rocket even told her about his reunion with Norata, it felt good for Rocket to have a friend again; he hadn't had a friend since Sinedd had left. By the time Tia left to go back to her own room, Rocket actually felt a little happy, something he hadn't really felt since Netherball.

Tia was feeling thoughtful. She was in her own room having just talked to Rocket; she was glad that she had. She felt like she'd managed to make some progress in becoming more friendly with him. The point that he had made about reconciling with his father had made her wonder about her own parents. Despite the fact that she rarely got on with them she still wished that they would support her, she didn't want to continue to have no contact. She knew that her parents wouldn't make the first move, they were way to stubborn for that, besides, they wouldn't come all the way to Akillian just for that. She couldn't exactly go trailing off to Obia moon to speak to them either; Zuriel was keeping a close eye on where everyone's coming and goings.

Tia moved over to her computer and typed in her parents' number. They'd probably be at home at this time. She debated for a few minutes before eventually pressing the 'call' button. She hoped that she hadn't made a mistake in calling them.

"Tia?" he father said, peering at her over the video link.

"It's me," she said shortly, regretting not having planned what to say in advance.

"Where have you been? What were you thinking, running away like that?" her mother asked her, angrily.

"And what were you thinking? Revealing my Coach's life story as some sort of petty revenge, don't you know how hard you made things for him?"

"You're our daughter, Tia, he was keeping us from you," Tia's father said, sounding certain that he was in the right.

"Parents should support their children, not suppress them, I need to play football."

"But Tia-" her mother started to say, before being cut off by Tia.

"I'm going to continue playing, no matter what, so you can either support me and be my parents or you can refuse to acknowledge me."

Tia's parents looked at each other helplessly. "We were only trying to do what's best...but Tia, of course we're your parents." After that they actually managed to have a conversation with no shouting or accusations. By the time they hung up, Tia felt better, she was glad that she could have some relationship with her parents if only by phone.

Meanwhile, Micro-ice was outside Mei's door, working up the ring the doorbell. He really liked her and despite the advice D'jok had given him, he wanted to see whether Mei would give him a chance. Taking a deep breath and pasting a smile onto his fast, he rang the bell on the room that Mei and Tia shared. Mei came to the door.

"What do you want?" Mei asked, hands on hips. She wasn't best pleased with Micro-ice's bothering of her. Inside the room, Micro-ice could see Tia slumped on her bed, looking at her video camera.

Awkwardly, he said "well, I was wondering, whether you ummm, wanted to hang out with me, sometime?"

"Don't even think about it," she said, closing the door in his face.

"That went well," he said, sarcastically to the door before slumping away, back to his room. D'jok would probably tell him 'I told you so' once he told him what had happened. As he walked back, he passed Mei's mother walking in the opposite direction. He looked away as she walked past, feeling embarrassed about the rejection that her daughter had given him.

Mei's doorbell rang again. Mei dragged herself up again, hoping that it wasn't Micro-ice coming to bother her again. She opened the door to find her mother standing there, looking as disapproving as usual.

"What is it, mother?" she asked, not knowing that she was going to visit. Mei's mother gestured her out of the room, so that Tia wouldn't be able to hear what she had to say.

"Are you still playing defence?" she asked, cutting straight to the point.

"Yes, I've tried to convince the Coach but there seems to be nothing I can do," she said, defensively.

"There are ways of getting what you want that don't involve the coach. What about that boy you are always complaining about? Use that against him to get what you want. You need to do better than this; you need to be a striker."

"I know, mum, I'll talk to you later," Mei said, walking off, wondering whether she could do anything against Micro-ice.

The next day, in Bleylock's hideout...

Bleylock hovered over Clamp's shoulder, watching him as he examined the data. "Well, Clamp, what's the verdict on the meta-flux?"

Clamp was silent.

"Remember, Clamp, that you are completely at my mercy. If you want the antidote then you'll tell me what you know," Bleylock said, menacingly.

"The meta-flux is there and it's ready for harvesting," Clamp said, reluctantly.

"Excellent, excellent," Bleylock said, stroking his chin. He walked out of Clamp's room to talk to Baldwin.

"What's the verdict, General?"

"Get some robots, Baldwin, prepare to capture the Akillian team," he said, smiling evilly at the thought of the meta-flux that would soon be his.

**That's all for now, sorry about the fact this chapter took a while to get out, hopefully the next one will come out soon. If all goes to plan there will only be three more chapters to this fic! Oh yes and I was wondering whether anyone could help me out with the summary of this fic, at the moment it's "**AU. What might have happened if Aarch had died when he had the smog poisoning." **which I think is a bit lacklustre, so if anyone can think of anything better then please tell me. Please review!**


	24. Chapter 24

A future that never happened chapter 24

**Disclaimer: I do not own Galactik Football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

"We've got to move fast if we want to stop, Bleylock," Sonny thought, watching from his hiding place above Bleylock's lair. He'd been monitoring Clamp for a while, having heard the rumours of Bleylock being up to good, but the stakes were even higher than he expected; he'd thought the meta-flux gone forever. Now it seemed it rested within innocent kids, the meta-flux would surely kill them, if Bleylock didn't get there first. Instantly, Sonny made his decision, he would warn the Akillian team and they could relocate them- buying them a bit more time for him to extract the meta-flux and hide it; he would do things right this time.

He moved from his position and headed back to his ship. He knew where the Akillian facilities were already, it was from following Rocket one day that he had found Bleylock; he's had a hunch ever since he had heard the whispers about Netherball that Bleylock might be behind it. He just hoped he would be able to act in time.

"Are you sure you want to lead the robots to the hotel yourself?" Baldwin asked. "Surely it would look a little bit suspicious; you are rarely seen in public."

"Baldwin, I have waited years for this, I am not going to let you or anyone else ruin my chances through sheer incompetence. I am the only person I trust to get the job done. Besides, I'm going to be ruler of the Galaxy; it'll be good for people to get used to my face."

"If you say so, General," Baldwin said, not wanting to further question his master.

The journey to the football team's training facility was short but it still felt like it too far too long for Bleylock. He couldn't wait to lay his hands on the meta-flux. He got to the door with the robots and they shot it open. He strode in, confidently, directing the robots to cover all the exits. He walked through, looking through all the rooms, the first few rooms he came to were empty. As were the next few. He went into the training room and there was no-one there. Further inspection of the rooms showed some basic signs of packing. They had left in a hurry.

The realisation that the meta-flux had escaped his grasp once again hit him. He screamed his anger into the roof. How could this have happened? His first instinct was to blame Baldwin; he had been acting awfully shifty, back at the lair. But then he started to doubt it, Baldwin didn't have the brains for this, it had the distinct smell of pirate to it; Sonny Blackbones to be precise.

His thoughts were interrupted by a sound, from down the hall. Bleylock thought that perhaps there was someone here after all, hiding. He marched down the hall, a couple of robots following along with him. All of a sudden, he heard a sound behind him, he turned to see his robots stuck to the ceiling- they looked hopeless. Then he felt someone grab him from behind. His arms were forced into handcuffs before he had a chance to fight. He tried to struggle but he was being held by more than one person, several by the feel of things. He was blindfolded and taken away somewhere.

"You're on a pirate ship," a posh voice said, the first voice he had heard since his capture, "You're in a cell that's so secure I doubt that anyone could get out of there." Bleylock screamed again, in anger. How dare those outlawed scum capture him, General of Technoid. He was not at all satisfied with how events were moving. Technoid had better come and free him or else there would be serious consequences.

Meanwhile at a nearby hotel....

"We've got him, Sonny," Corso reported, over the wrist communicators.

"Excellent work, make sure Bleylock's contained and could you send Artie and Bennet to go and get Clamp, we're going to need him to help extract the meta-flux."

"Okay, Sonny," Corso said, before 'hanging up'.

Sonny turned back to the Akillians. "We've got Bleylock; it'll be safe to return to your training facilities after you've had the meta-flux removed."

"What if we don't want it removed?" D'jok said, raising his hands in a gesture of defiance.

The bracelet around D'jok's wrist caught Sony's eye and threw him off balance for a second. It couldn't be...He blinked and realised that it wasn't the right time for this. The meta-flux was a pressing issue.

"D'jok, this flux is dangerous to your health, it could kill you."

D'jok crossed his arms, angry at the explanation he had been given. He couldn't believe that it had only been the meta-flux that had made them play well for all this time. He'd though he had talent. He didn't want his career in football to end, he couldn't go back to being the person who did ball tricks on street corners, he couldn't go back to being ordinary. Akillian was just starting to believe in football again, if they dropped out before the final 16, then it would all be over. They had to win the next match against the Shadows.

A while later and Clamp arrived, having found the antidote and taken it. The team made their decision, not that there was much of one, and they had their flux extracted.

Whilst Clamp was working on solidifying the meta-flux into a ball, Sonny took the opportunity to talk to D'jok.

"You have talent, the removing the meta-flux didn't take that away," he said, coming up to where D'jok was standing, staring angrily out of the window.

D'jok shrugged.

"You know, only two bracelets of that kind exist," he said, pointing to the one on D'jok's wrist and pulling up his sleeve to reveal his. "I gave the other one to my wife."

D'jok looked at him blankly, "what does that mean?"

"It mean's that I am your father," he said, smiling a little awkwardly at D'jok.

"My father?" D'jok said, in wonderment. He couldn't believe he would meet his father after all these years. He couldn't believe that his father was Sonny Blackbones.

Clamp shouted Sonny over, clearly the meta-flux had been synthesised. "We'll talk later, D'jok, I have to deal with the meta-flux right now."

"Okay," D'jok said, sounding a little bit faint. He watched his father as he walked over to the scientist named Clamp and took the meta-flux looking cautious.

"We still have a match, tomorrow," Zuriel said, looking at the tired faces around him, "now that this whole meta-flux thing is over, we need to go back and practice. Then it's a early night for everyone, we'll need to get up early to go the Shadows Planet.

The groans that came from the team were weak and subdued. Even groaning felt like an effort. Rocket's groan was the loudest though; he had to do a training session and then an afternoon therapy session. He wasn't looking forward to the next few hours.

The practice was a disaster. Without the meta-flux it seemed like they couldn't do anything. They missed shots that used to be so easy before. And they couldn't use the Breath. It really didn't bode well for the match against the Shadows.

Rocket was not it a good mood as he trudged to his therapy session. It was fair to say that he was in a dire mood and nothing a therapist could say would change his mind. His mood didn't improve when he saw Sinedd, who was on his way out of the therapist's office.

"Well, well, look at us just bumping into each other like this. Feel ready for the match tomorrow?" Sinedd's voice was the height of mockery.

Rocket started to say something but he stopped. They weren't ready but he didn't want Sinedd to know that.

Sinedd glared at Rocket, he felt irritated that Rocket wasn't saying anything, it was no use insulting someone if they didn't fight back. "Well, Rocket?"

"We're ready," Rocket lied, flatly, stepping past Sinedd into the therapist's office. Sinedd lingered where he had been standing for a minute, and then turned to get back to the Shadows Planet, he needed his rest for the match. He was desperately trying to ignore the horribly empty feeling that the 'confrontation' with Rocket had left him with.

The next morning and the team was up bright and early for the return match against the Shadows. They all shuffled off the shuttle and sat in a gloomy silence for the entire journey. The meta-flu and their last training session was weighing heavily on their minds.

They got there and got changed in silence. Zuriel tried to rouse them with a speech but it didn't go in. They felt doomed, they hadn't won the last match against the Shadows with the meta-flux, how could they possibly win now?

As predicted, the first half was a disaster; they couldn't seem to get it together. They didn't manage to summon the Breath, not even once. The Shadows scored two goals and they scored none. It seemed that their fate was sealed.

"You have to get it together," Zuriel lectured, at half time. "The meta-flux wasn't responsible for your ability, the old Akillian team never had it…" He paused and suddenly he remembered some of the things that Aarch had said to their old team when he was trying to motivate them. "You have to love the game. Ignore everything else around you; that's how the Breath will return."

The team seemed somewhat inspired by this speech, they cheered and it seemed that he had made the right decision in saying that. It was quite far from his usual coaching style (he preferred to stress the importance of the matches) but he was glad that he had taken this chance.

Almost immediately, an improvement could be seen in the players. The Breath returned and they managed to score, four times. The Shadows scored once more and so they won 4-3. They were going through to the final 16!

Later…

Micro-ice was busy doing a celebratory dance in his room, whilst D'jok was in the shower, when he got a knock on his door. He opened it to find Mei standing there in a short, blue dress, leaning suggestively in the door frame.

"Hi, Micro-ice," she said, smiling. "Can I come in?"

"Mei!" Micro-ice blinked several times to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. "Yeah, sure, come on in." He flashed what he hoped was a winning smile.

"Thanks," she said and sat down on his bed, completely confident, not even asking first.

"So, what are you here for?" Micro-ice winced as he realised how rude it sounded.

"I just want to hang out, I feel like I don't know you very well and I want to sort that out," she said, hating that she had to lead Micro-ice on like this. But she had to become a striker.

15 minutes worth of conversation later and Mei knew she had to bring it up, she would have to try to be subtle though, Micro-ice wasn't quite as stupid as he looked.

"So," she said, "I'm really annoyed with Coach."

"Why?" Micro-ice asked, taking the bait.

"I can't believe he put me on defence, don't you feel outraged too, you used to play defence. He totally put us in the wrong positions."

"Yeah," Micro-ice said, even though he felt a lot more comfortable as a striker, he wasn't going to disagree with Mei just when she had started to like him. "You know what, we should just switch positions in practice and I bet Coach won't even notice."

"That sounds like a great plan." She leaned in a little bit closer. "You're so smart, Micro-ice." The sound of water from the bathroom stopped and she drew back. "I'd better go now, bye."

"Bye," Micro-ice said, feeling as lovestruck as ever. He couldn't believe that Mei would take the time to speak to him. He was feeling completely over the moon.

The next day at practice, they enacted the shoddily put together plan. Of course Micro-ice's prediction was incorrect, Zuriel noticed in the first 5 minutes and immediately made them swap back, and no amount of protest from either Mei or Micro-ice would make him change their positions. Mei realised that she would need a better plan, in her heart she'd known that this one would fail.

Later…

Mei peeped round the wall, to check that D'jok was alone in the common room before making her move.

"Can I join you?" she asked, smiling radiantly.

"Sure," D'jok said, shrugging.

She smiled again and started a conversation with him. If D'jok didn't know better, he would have said that she was flirting with him. He was still upset about Tia but here was a beautiful girl who was interested in him, how could he resist flirting back, if only a little?

**That's it for now, sorry it took so long for this chapter to come out, I had a psychology exam as well as loads of coursework. Please review!**


	25. Chapter 25

A future that never happened chapter 25 

**Disclaimer:**** I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

**I forgot to say it in my last chapter, but thanks to xXLaurenMusicXx for the help with the summary!**

"Hey, D'jok, that's where you are, I..." Micro-ice literally stopped in his tracks when he saw D'jok and Mei sitting together, close together. They were laughing and Micro-ice couldn't help but feel suspicious about the whole thing.

"Hey, Micro-ice, what's up?" D'jok's voice was weak, he knew he had transgressed against his best friend, he had known his feelings for her.

"Nothing, nothing at all, I'm leaving," Micro-ice said, defensively, crossing his arms and walking out with less bounce than he had walked in with.

Mei tried to smile as she saw the effect the encounter had had on Micro-ice but it didn't feel good. She reminded herself that this was what she wanted. She wanted to be a striker, so she had to drive Micro-ice away. She wasn't sure whether she could go through with it. Her mother's voice in her head, reminded her that she had to be the best, that there was no other option. She sighed briefly then put on her brightest smile.

"So, D'jok, you want to see some of my pictures from my beach holiday last year?"

Later...

D'jok trudged back off to his room, feeling dazed. Mei had really seemed to take an interest in him, she had been asking him question after question about his life and she seemed to genuinely want to know him. He'd doubted everything after Tia had unceremoniously dumped him but now he was back. Destiny was playing on his side again.

"I was clearly never meant to be with Tia, that wasn't my destiny, destiny wanted me to be with Mei instead!" he thought, glad to have the way illuminated for him. It put all the suffering into perspective. Still, he felt overwhelmed by Mei. She was so confident, so flashy and feminine. Tia had always been understated and quiet. D'jok wasn't quite sure which he thought was better but he was certainly enjoying getting to know Mei.

He walked in and flopped on the bed, smiling up at the poster of his hero, Warren. He knew that he would have his own poster someday too.

"Well, look who it is; if it isn't Mr betray his friends. Are you planning on stealing anything else or is the stuff in this room safe." Micro-ice's angry voice snapped D'jok right out of his good mood.

"What are you talking about?" He knew he had to say this even if deep down he knew what Micro-ice was angry with him for.

"You knew how I felt about Mei and she was just starting to like me when you come along and try to take her from me."

"She doesn't belong to you," D'jok shouted back, in his own defence.

"I thought we were best friends, forever...but then you went and did this." Micro-ice sounded more upset than angry making D'jok immediately feel guilty.

"Sorry," he said, too quietly, too late. Micro-ice had already gone into the bathroom and he didn't come out again until D'jok had already fallen asleep.

The next day...

Rocket was feeling good, now that he knew that they were guaranteed a place in the Final 16 it was like a weight off his mind. They still had a week to go, so the nerves that he knew he would inevitably feel hadn't yet started. Not all was well though, D'jok and Micro-ice seemed to have fallen out for some unfathomable reason and this was bound to cause tension in team practices. Rocket hoped that they would work it out. There had been a lot of drama that had happened recently, what with the meta-flux crisis and everything else that had been going on. By comparison, a week of training and a few petty squabbles felt quite relaxing.

He was on his way to therapy again. He didn't exactly enjoy therapy, he could honestly say that he dreaded going every single day, but it was working. He didn't feel like such a bad person anymore. The therapist seemed to think he was improving anyway, apparently, he could probably stop going once he got to Genesis. He'd got used to the fact that he would always have an encounter with Sinedd either on the way out or upon entering the therapist's.

He entered and as predicted, he saw a gloomy Sinedd leaving the therapist's office. Rocket felt a twinge of sympathy for Sinedd; clearly he wasn't getting out of therapy any time soon.

"No insult today?" he asked, as Sinedd pushed past him without saying a word.

Sinedd turned; he appeared to be searching for anything he could use against him.

"The Shadows will crush you at Genesis," was what he finally said, lacking for anything more personal or cutting. Sinedd hated feeling so powerless; Rocket always seemed to have the upper hand no matter what he did.

"Sinedd..." Rocket started to say before stopping and changing his mind. He had been going to say something but he had forgotten what it was. He walked straight ahead into the therapist's office; he didn't want to be late.

Later...

Almost as soon as he had got back into his room, his Dad called. Norata had been making a habit of calling straight after therapy to see how it went. Rocket didn't mind but he hoped that it wasn't only guilt that motivated him to call.

"Can I ask you a question?" Rocket said, a few minutes into the conversation, he had meant to work it in subtly but the nervousness he felt was preventing him from resting easily until he asked. The only problem was, that he thought his father might react badly to what he was about to ask.

"Ask away," Norata replied, not having any idea what Rocket might be about to ask.

"What was my mother like? It's important...for therapy I mean..."

Norata sighed. He hated this topic coming up. He'd lied to his son and told him that his mother was dead and for all he knew it was true. She'd gone and it was like she was dead to him, in some ways it was the truth, but he knew Rocket wouldn't see it that way.

"Listen, son, there's something I have to do first; I'll get back to you on that one okay?"

"Okay," Rocket said, quietly, he had suspected his father would try to avoid the subject. After that the conversation ended with an air of awkwardness. They said their goodbyes to each other and Rocket was left wondering whether things would ever be simple between him and his father. He didn't have time to ponder it for long because Tia knocked on the door and invited him to the common room where apparently everyone else was hanging out.

The fun he had with the team meant that the next morning, he found that he had almost completely forgotten about the conversation that he had with his father. It all came back to him when he bumped into his father, standing next to a strange woman he had never seen before.

"Dad, what are you doing here?"

"We need to talk," he said, slowly and upon seeing Rocket noticing his companion he added, "the three of us."

"We can talk in my room." Rocket spun around and started to retrace his steps back to his room, knowing that his father and the woman were following him there. He didn't know what this was about but he knew he would find out soon. He only hoped that he wouldn't be too late for practice, they had important matches coming up.

He sat down on his bed but they stayed standing up.

"I've made a lot of mistakes over the years," Norata said, suddenly. This made Rocket feel immediately suspicious. It was rare that his father ever admitted to making any mistake, he never apologised for anything.

"What is this about?" Rocket said, trying to keep his frustration in check in front of the stranger.

"I'm your mother, "she blurted out, not being able to contain the secret any longer.

"My mother? But...."

"It's true," Norata said, "I was angry when she left me and so I..."

"You lied to me? For all those years?" Rocket shouldn't have been surprised after all the other things his father had done, but he was. He couldn't believe that his father would lie to him something as important as that.

"It wasn't all his fault," his mother interjected quickly, "I thought I would have a better career on Genesis and when I didn't I felt too ashamed to come back..."

"You abandoned me?"

"Mistakes were made on both sides," Norata said, trying to reach out to Rocket. "After last night, I thought that maybe it would be best if I told you the truth, if I found your mother. I thought that perhaps if things on Akillian could change this much then maybe I could too."

"We've decided to try again, we want to be a family again," Keira said and Rocket noticed that his parents were holding hands. It was almost enough to stop him from being angry.

"I..." Rocket couldn't even speak, he couldn't think of a single thing to say, he didn't know what to do.

"We'll call you later," Norata said, sensing that Rocket was too overwhelmed to hear anymore. Rocket nodded numbly and watched as they left. He was inclined to think that the whole thing was a dream but he knew he was awake. He had a mother; it was hard to believe. It wasn't hard to believe that his father would lie to him, but this was pushing it. Rocket dragged himself off the bed, not looking forward to the lecture that he would get from Zuriel for being late for training.

As predicted, Zuriel was not impressed. "You have to be completely devoted to your sport, you don't just have to like it, you have to love it, live it. Right now, football is your life, the rest can come after the cup."

"But, my father he..." Rocket trailed off, he wasn't about to give his coach all the details of his personal life.

"Your father was a player once himself, he would understand."

"You're not exactly being honest, now are you?" Rocket felt angry, normally he could have just taken the lecture with an ashamed nod, but he was angry with his 'parents' and that anger had to manifest itself somehow. "You're only doing this out of guilt. Everyone knows that it was you that convinced Aarch to join up with the Shadows, you think that doing this will make up for it."

Rocket wasn't sure that this was true, but he'd been subjected to enough psychobabble from the therapist that he knew how to use it. He immediately regretted saying it once it was out of his mouth; it was that Netherball feeling again, that loss of control.

"Join your teammates in practice, we don't have any more time to waste," Zuriel said, ignoring Rocket's outburst entirely.

Rocket did as he was told and tried his best to keep his mind on the game. He was dreading having to talk about this in therapy.

Later...

He really wasn't in the mood to see anyone, let alone Sinedd, but inevitably Rocket ended up bumping into him.

"What's wrong with you?" Sinedd asked, without any concern but also without too much venom. He simply sounded curious.

"None of your business," Rocket snapped, he didn't see why he should have to be civil to Sinedd anymore.

"Fine," Sinedd said, angry with himself that he had asked in the first place, he didn't care what Rocket did with his life, as long as the Shadows won the cup.

"I met my mother," Rocket said, grudgingly, as if that 'fine' had been an interrogation.

"I thought she was dead," Sinedd said, forgetting to keep his front up too much, in his confusion.

"I thought so too. My father lied to me."

"That's great for you," Sinedd said, with sarcasm, thinking about his own parents- he had no memory of them and so all he had was a photo graph to go on.

"I'm going in," Rocket said, pointing at the therapist's door. "I'll see you tomorrow."

After Rocket had left his appointment, he couldn't help feeling that his short conversations with Sinedd, were doing him more good than the actual therapy. Later that night when his parents called he answered the phone, the call didn't make it all better, but he was less angry. Perhaps that was all that could be hoped for.

Meanwhile...

"I'm sorry," D'jok said, suddenly to Micro-ice, after hours of not speaking to each other.

"Huh? Since when do you apologise?"

"Since now I guess, listen, I have something to tell you," D'jok said, hoping that the issue of Mei was nicely swept under the carpet.

"What is it?" Micro-ice asked, his instincts as D'jok's best friend overtaking any jealousy he had felt.

"Sonny Blackbones...is my father."

Micro-ice laughed out loud. "Very funny, D'jok! I know you like to talk about having a great destiny, but this is taking it a little bit too far!"

"No," D'jok's voice was serious, "Sonny Blackbones really is my father. We have the same bracelet."

"No way! Wow! The number one pirate, your father, I can't believe this." From Micro-ice's reaction, you would have thought that Sonny was his father not D'jok's. But as Micro-ice continued on, D'jok felt better; he had missed sharing things with Micro-ice. He vowed that he would try harder to keep the friendship going, despite the fact that the Mei situation wasn't just going to disappear. They'd be going to Genesis soon anyway, it would be the experience of a life time, D'jok just knew it would be their destiny to win.

**That's it for now, the next and last chapter will be posted soon. Please review; all feedback is really appreciated! **


	26. Chapter 26

A future that never happened chapter 26

**Disclaimer: ****I do not own Galactik football and I make no money from this fanfiction.**

At the end of the week…

"We'll just make this quick visit, before leaving for Genesis," Zuriel said, hurrying them along. Rocket was in a particular state of anticipation, both for the final 16 and for this visit. In a way it was like he was finally getting to meet his Uncle, even if he was dead. They walked to the Graveyard, Rocket had never been there before, but it felt familiar. He and the rest of the team followed Zuriel, who seemed to know the way through pure instinct. He had never been there either.

Zuriel stopped when he found the grave he was looking for. He read the name 'Aarch' on the Grave and he sunk to his knees. He'd been putting off coming here. He just knelt there, becoming less and less aware of his surroundings. The bright light of the sun shone on the tufts of black hair that had begun to grow again now that he had stopped shaving his head.

The rest of the team kept their distance, stood in clumps. Ahito and Thran to the left,, furthest away from the Grave. Mei was standing between D'jok and Micro-ice. Tia and Rocket were standing close, with Sinedd off to the left of Rocket. Sinedd hadn't planned to come, but Rocket had invited him and it had given him a legitimate reason to skip therapy (if you asked him, anything was better than therapy).

Artegor got up and addressed the group, genuinely smiling, "Okay, let's go to Genesis."

They walked out of there with high hopes for the future, the blazing sun seeming like an omen of some sort.

"Are you sure you don't want to come back with us?" Rocket asked Sinedd, hoping beyond hope that he would say yes. He wanted so much to repair the damage he had done.

"I belong with the Shadows," Sinedd said, "see you on the field." He walked away, in a different direction from the Akillians. Despite the fact that Sinedd had refused, Rocket still felt vaguely hopeful, he wasn't going to give up on Sinedd.

"You know," Ahito said to his brother, as they walked to the shuttle, "I don't think 'The Akillians' is a very good name for us. Don't you think big brother?"

"What would you have us be called?" Thran asked, amused.

"Something cool, like 'The Snow Kids'."

"You must be dreaming, little brother, there's no way that's going to catch on," he said, chuckling to himself.

**And that's the end. I hope you enjoyed the fanfiction and the ending. Thank you to everyone who has stuck with this story to the end, all your reviews have been so helpful, I couldn't have done it without you. So yeah, please review the final chapter! Gosh, I can't believe this is really finished now, I feel like I've been writing it forever. I know that not everything is fully resolved but I wanted the sense that their lives would continue on and I wanted to avoid that overly neat feeling. So yeah, thanks everyone!**


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